The Financial Times newspaper is to be sold to a Japanese firm for £844m (€1.19bn).

Nikkei is to buy the FT Group from British company Pearson, which has owned the news organisation for 58 years.

The Financial Times says: "Pearson has for the past few weeks been exploring a sale of the group, which comprises the Financial Times, a number of related titles and a 50 percent stake in the Economist Group, publisher of the Economist magazine."

German media group, Axel Springer had been pointed to as the most likely buyer if the paper was to be sold.

It is understood that Nikkei trumped its offer at the last minute, and the German company only heard that it had been out-bid 15 minutes before the news was publicly announced.

The deal excludes the Economist stake and the FT Group headquarters in London.

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The Troika is back in Athens today, officials from the ECB, IMF and the EU will continue negotiations with the state, as it hopes to secure its proposed €86bn bailout.

The visit comes one day after the Greek parliament passed the final vote which was necessary to be approved before the country could agree to a new austerity-heavy bailout.

After being elected in late-January on an anti-austerity platform and six months of often volatile negotiations with its international creditors, Syriza took a major climb-down to secure a new funding deal.

Speaking yesterday, PM Alexis Tsipras said, "We chose a difficult compromise to avert the most extreme plans by the most extreme circles in Europe."

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One third of all venture capital funding in Europe during the second quarter of 2015 was invested in the UK.

Ireland is at risk of falling behind as young Irish innovators are drawn to London and other UK cities to take advantage of favourable tax policies, and a richer funding environment.

The KPMG and CBI data notes that start-up culture is booming in the city and €319m was invested through 49 deals in London during the three month period.

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Northern Ireland's Affairs Committee of the House of Commons has described the failure of the Northern Ireland Executive and Cerberus to agree a Memorandum of Understanding as 'strange.'

In response, secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers has said that this is a matter to be considered by the Northern Ireland Executive.

Before the sale was agreed she advocated the agency taking “longer-term approach” when selling its Northern Irish loans.

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Barack Obama has called on Britain to remain in the European Union.

In an interview last night, Barack Obama said the EU has "made the world safer and more prosperous" as "part of the cornerstone of institutions built after world war two that has made the world safer and more prosperous".

He also said British Prime Minister David Cameron has been "an outstanding partner" and congratulated his government on meeting the Nato target of spending two per cent of GDP on defence.

A British exit from the EU would be likely to damage the Irish economy as the cost of trading with our closest neighbour would become more expensive.