The financial website shake-out claimed its biggest victim yet yesterday when Interactive Investor International (iii), the sector's largest player, said it was about to be taken over for one fifth of its flotation value.

Australian financial services firm AMP is close to offering 28p to 30p per share for iii in a deal that would value the business at around £50m - little more than the cash it has in the bank. Although iii, which floated its shares at 150p each last March, has around 1.2m registered users, it has been unable to make sufficient money out of them.

AMP, which last week agreed to buy UK financial services unit Towry Law for £76m, plans to sell financial products to iii users.

A sale of iii has been on the cards since March. It is a victim of the upheaval in the online financial news sector, which has been hit by falling advertising revenues, lower stock trading volumes and difficulties extracting cash from users.

Last month, GlobalNet Financial was bought and then largely closed by New Media Spark. Thestreet.co.uk has closed, netimperative.co.uk has been refinanced and sharecast and nothingventured.com have merged. The online versions of the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal have also shed staff.

Yesterday, iii shares climbed 3p to 24.5p after confirming it was in takeover talks. Shares in AMP, which trades on the Sydney stock exchange, closed down 89 cents at A$21.10.