Fergie's Tech Blog

Ireland: Eircom Backs €2.42 Billion Offer

A Bloomberg/AP newswire article, via The International Herald Tribune, reports that:

Eircom Group, Ireland's largest phone company, said Tuesday that it had advised shareholders to accept an offer from Babcock & Brown Capital valuing the company at €2.42 billion, or $3.11 billion, ending months of talks with various bidders.

Anthony O'Reilly, Eircom's executive chairman, said the board had decided that the offer "is fair and reasonable and is in the best interests of Eircom ordinary shareholders."

Robert Topfer, the executive director of Babcock & Brown, said the new management would seek to accelerate the rollout of broadband services and increase the market share of Eircom's cellphone division, Meteor, which has 625,000 customers and an 8 percent market share - a distant third behind Vodafone and O2. Topfer said he hoped to increase Meteor's share above 20 percent.

posted by Fergie @ 5/23/2006 02:30:00 PM