|
Eircom courted again
|
 |
February 7, 2001: 7:00 a.m. ET
Former Irish telecom monopoly approached for possible takeover
|
LONDON (CNN) - Irish telecom firm eircom said on Wednesday it had received a further takeover approach led by Denis O'Brien, founder of rival Esat.
Eircom said that any offer would depend on the successful sale of its mobile unit Eircell and due diligence procedures by O'Brien's consortium elsland. It gave no value for the latest offer by elsland.
Eircom, the former Irish telecom monopoly, agreed to sell its cell phone business to Britain's Vodafone Group for  4.5 billion ($4.2 billion) in December to focus on its fixed-line and Internet operations. That deal has not yet completed.
 At that time, eircom rejected a 2.25 billion approach for its fixed-line assets from O'Brien, saying that offer undervalued its business.
Eircom, which was privatised in July 1999, said on Wednesday that discussions with eIsland were at a preliminary stage and there was no assurance they would result in an acceptable offer.
The company has some 1.58 million telephone lines connected to its telephone network.
Eircom (EIR) shares were down 1.2 percent at 2.56 in London morning trade and unchanged at that price in Dublin, giving it a market value of 5.65 billion.
O'Brien last year stepped down as chairman of Esat Telecom, the company he founded and built into eircom's closest competitor. He sold Esat to British Telecommunications for £1.3 billion.
BT was forced to buy the half it didn't already own of Esat's mobile arm Esat Digifone for $1.24 billion on Tuesday after Norwegian telecom firm Telenor exercised a previously-agreed option to sell its stake. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
