Their aim to maintain a third operator in the market, which is dominated by Reuters and Bloomberg, could take years of management effort and cost upwards of £500m.Bridge has been controlled by Welson Carson Stowe, a privately held New York investment bank. In recent years it had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in an attempt to build a third financial information group. Those efforts unraveled last month when Bridge filed for protection from creditors. Since then, SunGard, a US IT company, and Reuters have lodged bids for parts of Bridge It is thought that some of the bids overlap Reuters stock ended down 54p at 975p yesterday.. Shares in Eircom, the privatised Irish telephone operator, jumped yesterday following confirmation that a consortium led by George Soros, the billionaire financier, and Sir Anthony O’Reilly, chairman of Independent News & Media, parent company of The Independent, is considering a bid for the company. Shares in Eircom, the privatised Irish telephone operator, jumped yesterday following confirmation that a consortium led by George Soros, the billionaire financier, and Sir Anthony O’Reilly, chairman of Independent News & Media, parent company of The Independent, is considering a bid for the company.
The consortium’s interest paves the way for a three-way battle for Eircom, whose market capitalisation had fallen sharply along with the recent collapse in telecom valuations.Mr Soros and Sir Anthony have teamed up with Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus with a view to mounting a bid that analysts said could value Eircom at £1.6bn-£1.7bn. Eircom shares ended in London at 2.70 euros, up 10 cents on the day.The consortium said that Sir Anthony, a former chief executive of HJ Heinz, has agreed to act as non-executive chairman, with Goldman Sachs acting as adviser.

The group said it had approached Eircom for information to enable it to complete its due diligence.Two rival bidders are already vying for Eircom. Denis O’Brien, the Irish entrepreneur who sold the Esat telecoms business to British Telecom last year, is heading a group that has already made an indicative offer of 2.4bn euros. Dermot Desmond, a Dublin stockbroker who owns London’s City airport, is also interested.The company is selling its mobile business, Eircell, to Vodafone for 2.2bn euros (£1.4bn), leaving it with its fixed-line and internet activities.Sir Anthony said: “This consortium brings the right blend of telecommunications expertise, Irish management experience and financial muscle to deliver an attractive offer to Eircom shareholders.”Eircom has signalled that it considers the O’Brien offer to be too low. Eircom has been a disappointing investment for smaller shareholders in the Irish Republic, many of whom bought into its privatisation at 3.90 euros a share in 1999. The company’s stock briefly touched 5 euros shortly after listing, then fell back sharply and hit a low of 2.25 euros.Sweden’s Telia and KPN of the Netherlands together hold 35 per cent of the company, while Eircom unions hold 15 per cent. A spokesman for the O’Reilly-Soros consortium said a formal offer would take “weeks rather than days”.. Hilton, the UK leisure giant, is set to double its European hotel operations by acquiring Sweden’s Scandic Hotels for £612m in cash and shares.

Hilton, the UK leisure giant, is set to double its European hotel operations by acquiring Sweden’s Scandic Hotels for £612m in cash and shares.
Hilton, which owns the Ladbrokes betting chain as well as the upmarket Hilton brand outside the United States, has made an agreed offer for Scandic’s 154 hotels. If the deal goes ahead, it will take Hilton’s total portfolio to around 390, and will double the number of its hotel beds in continental Europe.The announcement came as Hilton reported a 27 per cent jump in hotel profits for the first quarter, led by strong European trading. Betting profits rose 30 per cent in the period, but shares in Hilton ended down just 0.75p at 219.75p on fears that the foot-and-mouth crisis and the US economic downturn could have an adverse impact over the next few months.Commenting on the Scandic deal, Hilton’s chief executive, David Michels, said: “We’ve been talking to lots of people for a long time. I’d be lying if I said this was our number one choice.” He said Scandic was one of four potential targets the company had identified. He would not comment on the other three but analysts speculated that the list could have included Swissotel Hotels & resorts, which was sold by the loss-making SAirGroup to Raffles of Singapore for S$439m (£168m) yesterday.Mr Michels dismissed persistent speculation that Hilton is lining up a disposal of its Ladbrokes chain in order to focus on hospitality. The betting division performed better than expectations in the first quarter, despite a run of horseracing cancellations due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak.Margins improved as an unusually high number of outsiders romped to victory in sporting events. Meanwhile, Ladbrokes’ eGaming arm helped boost earnings by turning in a profit nine months ahead of target.