MANCHESTER-based web hosting company Melbourne is to be bought by listed cloud computing firm iomart for up to £7m.

Based at Manchester Science Park Melbourne was founded in 2000 by Daniel Keighron-Foster while he was still a university student.

It has more than 600 customers and operates its own datacentres in Manchester - which is an attractive proposition for its new owner.

Glasgow-based iomart said as well as additional datacentre capacity, the deal would provide a sales platform into the north.