Bob Geldof is selling Deckchair.com, an online travel company he founded, to rival World Travel in a near£10 million sterling (€16 million) deal, it was confirmed yesterday.

Mr Geldof founded the company, which allows people to book cheap flights over the Internet, in 1999 with former Eidos executive Mr James Page.

The deal comes a month after Deckchair cut a quarter of its workforce as part of a "streamlining" process.

Thirteen staff lost their jobs at the IT department of the former Boomtown Rat's website.

As part of the deal, World Travel, valued at around the same amount as Deckchair, will add Deckchair's 250,000 users to its own 85,000.

Deckchair's name will remain and will be introduced in North America, Asia and Europe.

Mr Geldof will join the board of World Travel as non-executive director and part of his duties will be marketing the group's businesses.