The Canadian smartphone maker, Blackberry Ltd, rose to the highest price in a month after Reuters reported the company is considering going private.

Michael Dell won support from Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) for the $24.4bn (€19bn) buyout of his company, a surprise endorsement from an influential shareholder adviser.

Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, this week took the company private after seeing its share price plummet in recent years. Ireland, where the company employs about 2,000 people, will be watching on, hoping Dell’s fortunes can be revived, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

Dell, which intends to go private in a $24.4bn (€17.9bn) deal led by founder and CEO Michael Dell, plans to stick to its current turnaround strategy to diversify away from personal computers.

Computer giant Dell is to be bought back by its founder in a $24.4bn deal that sees it leave the stock market after 25 years.

MICROSOFT has agreed to buy internet telephone service Skype for $8.5 billion (€5.9bn) in the biggest deal in the software maker’s 36-year history.

Microsoft has agreed to buy the internet telephone service Skype for $8.5bn (€5.9bn) in the biggest deal in the software company’s 36-year history.

Seagate Technology, which makes hard disk drives for computers, is to go public again, having been taken private in August, 2000 by a group of private equity firms led by buyout firm Silver Lake.