Yell Group, quoted owner of the UK's Yellow Pages became the world's third largest directory publisher today with the $1.58bn (€1.25bn) purchase of US rival, TransWestern. The price is more than 20% above what Yell indicated would be its top price and 50% above initial industry estimates.

When TransWestern was first put up for sale in February, Yell had indicated it would not be prepared to bid more than the dollar equivalent of £700m, or $1.3bn at today's exchange rate.