Staff at the newspaper have balloted to accept a departmental restructuring programme that involves organisational changes, including merging a number of departments. The next stage will involve reaching agreement on job cuts under a voluntary programme through which The Irish Times has told staff it expects to cut up to 45 jobs.

The company is offering staff three years' pay for 10 years' service. Unlike the 2002 programme, the offer does not include pension benefits.

Irish Timesmanaging director Maeve Donovan said the paper will be reviewing applications in the next few weeks.

Donovan said the price paid for myhome. ie was "very much in the range" of recent acquisitions in that sector, noting that primelocation.

com sold for 8.5 times' revenues. "Where we were was examining our position for the medium term in relation to online classifieds, which are obviously key for every publishing company, " she said.

"The dream acquisition came up on the property front."

The deal involves a 40m payment up front, with another 10m in deferred payments over five years tied to targets. The company will continue to be run by the existing management team led by Jim Miley. Others in the shakeout included Independent News & Media, Guardian Media and British property portal Rightmove.