And another British company falls to overseas ownership ...

The BBC reports:

US payment processing giant Vantiv has agreed to merge with its British rival Worldpay in a deal valuing the company at about £9.1bn.

Vantiv has offered to pay 385p a share for Worldpay, or £7.7bn, plus £1.4bn to cover debts.

In a joint statement, the two companies said that both boards of directors had reached an "agreement in principle" on the deal.

It may be described as a merger but you can bet the decisions will be taken in Cincinnati rather than in the UK.

I suppose that this signals that the government's plans to intervene in foreign takeovers are little more than hot air ...