In Short

Today's business news in brief

Dubai refiner to pay 1.2bn to control Dragon

Dubais state-owned refiner agreed to pay $1.9 billion (€1.2 billion) to take control of Dublin-listed Dragon Oil in a further push into exploration as the emirate looks to diversify its economy as it grapples with a huge debt burden.

Dubai-based Dragons committee of independent directors advised investors to accept the 455 pence a share bid for the 48 per cent of the Turkmenistan-focused oil explorer that Emirates National Oil Co (Enoc) does not own.

The offer valued Dragon at £2.36 billion (€2.6 billion).

Enocs investment in Dragon would be the first acquisition by a Dubai government entity in more than two years and signals the emirate is altering its investment strategy after suffering from a real estate crash during the financial crisis. – (Reuters)

Google takes market share from Bing

Despite a major marketing push from Microsoft’s Bing and its partnership with Yahoo, Google increased its share of the US search engine market in October according to web traffic analysis firm Statcounter. Google had 80.4 per cent of the US search market, with Bing and Yahoo accounting for 8.9 per cent each.

“A worrying trend for Microsoft is that the combined Bing and Yahoo! market share has seen a steady decline from 20.4 per cent in July to 17.8 per cent in October,” said Aodhan Cullen, chief executive of StatCounter. Worldwide Bing and Yahoo have a combined 7.4 per cent of the market while Google has 90.8 per cent.

EcoSecurities bid  is accepted

A JPMorgan Chase unit said shareholders owning more than 80 per cent of EcoSecurities Group have accepted its takeover bid, which has become unconditional. The New York-based bank’s Carbon Acquisition expects to complete the purchase in December. EcoSecurities, based in Dublin, will operate as an independent unit and its brand will be retained, it said. It has the most projects generating so-called Certified Emission Reduction credits under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. – (Bloomberg)

Clearstream reports profit of 1.9m

Irish medical devices group Clearstream Technologies has reported profits of €1.9 million for last year, its first full year of profitability, compared with a loss of €1.2 million in 2007.

Sales jumped over 50 per cent to €13.9 million in 2008 from €9.2 million the previous year. While sales of branded products have slowed this year, the company said in a statement that this had been offset by other channels. “Overall, trading has been in line with the board’s expectation,” it stated.