Buy & Sell, Ireland's free advertising paper, and Buyandsell.net, its Internet arm established last November, have been acquired as part of the sale of its parent group of companies, Loot, to Scoot.com for £189.8 million sterling (€300 million).

Publicly-quoted Scoot.com (www.scoot.co.uk) creates and facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers through a range of access channels, while Loot (www.loot.co.uk) publishes Britain's leading free ads journals.

The implications of the deal for Buyandsell.net, which is 75 per cent owned by Buy & Sell, have not yet been outlined, and the valuation placed on the website as part of the sale was not detailed.

However Ms Mary Mangan, managing director of Buyandsell.net, has welcomed the deal, saying Buyandsell.net offers a natural fit for Scoot.com in Ireland.

"Buyandsell.net will certainly benefit from Scoot.com's technology platform, and having a majority shareholder with its investment record in the marketplace is very exciting," Ms Mangan said.

She added Buyandsell.net would be discussing branding issues with Scoot.com over the coming weeks, and whether it would continue to operate under the Buy & Sell name.

Ms Mangan said she and Mr John Whelan, managing director of Buy & Sell, also understand they will be included as part of Scoot's senior management team with continued executive involvement in the merged entity.

The Buy & Sell group currently employs around 85 people, and Ms Mangan said these jobs would be retained.

The combined group now plans to create a large dynamic marketplace for buyers and sellers of all types.

Scoot was founded five years ago by a small group including founding investor and chief executive officer Mr Robert Bonnier (30).

It recently announced a series of strategic alliances with partners including Vodafone, Yahoo!, Freeserve and Cable & Wireless.

The company now has approximately 700 employees based in the British operation across two main sites in Telford and Oxford.