In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

Telefónica wins approval to purchase O2

Spain's Telefónica won European regulatory approval from the European Commission for its £17.7 billion (€25.9 billion) purchase of UK telecoms group O2 yesterday, on condition it abandons the FreeMove low-cost roaming alliance.

Roaming alliances are key for consumers to get better charges when they travel overseas. These alliances help smaller mobile operators to take on the might of Vodafone, which has operations in several countries.

In a statement, Telefónica welcomed the ruling. The acquisition of 02 will allow Telefónica to enter the British and Irish markets and to re-enter Germany, which it abandoned in 2002 after failing to build an operation there.

The world's fifth-largest telecoms company by market value will also gain 25 million customers.

The O2 deal was approved by Charlie McCreevy after competition commissioner Neelie Kroes excluded herself from decisions involving O2 as she was a non-executive director at the company before joining the commission. - (Reuters)

Elan agrees deal on drug technology

Biotech group Elan has agreed a deal allowing US rival EntreMed to use its NanoCrystal drug delivery technology in the development of experimental cancer treatment Panzem.

Elan said under the terms of the agreement, it would receive payments from EntreMed once certain clinical, manufacturing and regulatory targets had been reached. Elan will also receive royalty payments based on sales of Panzem. - (Reuters)

Irish staff 'most likely to leave job'

Irish employees are among the most likely in Europe to leave their job, according to a survey by research firm Watson Wyatt.

This is despite Irish employees having a higher than average positive work experience. The survey, which was conducted with 8,500 employees around Europe, found 41 per cent of Irish employees are actively considering leaving their employer.

This was six percentage points higher than the European average.

Mortgage lending to hit €27bn - EBS

Demand for housing in 2006 will remain strong and mortgage lending will reach €26.9 billion by the end of the year, according to EBS building society.

About €4.4 billion will be spent on investment properties during 2006, with house price growth moderating to 5 per cent. The building society said that strong demographic factors were assisting the housing market.

Dara Deering, head of mortgages, said: "There is still a high percentage of the Irish population between the ages of 25 and 35, the typical age for first-time buyers, wishing to buy their first home and over the next decade. We could see up to 500,000 people returning or moving to Ireland".