TRIBUTES WERE paid last night to businessman Eddie Kerr who died suddenly in Dublin yesterday.

Mr Kerr (56), one of the country's first technology millionaires, was chairman of Bray-based company Bronway, which provided automation equipment to the CD/DVD industry at the time of his death.

A former photocopier salesman, Mr Kerr made his first fortune when he sold his shareholding in computer services firm Sharptext to industrial holding group DCC in the early 1990s.

He was an investor in Lan Communications, which sells computer networking equipment, when it was sold to Eircom for €13 million in 1999, and chairman of Conduit, the 11850 directory enquiries company which was worth €280 million at flotation in 2000. More recently Mr Kerr was an investor in Dublin media company Fourth Edition and home automation firm Touchtech.

Businessman and close friend Gerard Byrne said: "Eddie had a incomparable insight into people and businesses. His ability to see an opportunity in its simplest form made him stand out."

Martin O'Malley, managing director of Bronway, said: "He was a great motivator and very sharp - could see through things very quickly."

Mr Kerr is survived by a daughter.