Possible new offer may strengthen Eircom hand

A possible third-party bid by multi-millionaire Mr Pearse Flynn for Eircom's non-mobile business would allow the Eircom board to adopt a more aggressive position in its dealings with Mr Denis O'Brien's consortium, eIsland.

But it was unclear last night if the interest expressed by Corkman Mr Flynn, who held a senior position with French telecoms group Alcatel until the end of January, would advance to a formal bid for Eircom.

He was in contact with the former State telecoms company as recently as two weeks ago but could not be contacted for comment last night.

While Mr O'Brien's eIsland consortium has signed a confidentiality agreement with Eircom which allows it to get a limited volume of confidential financial information, the Eircom board still believes that the suggested €1.10 offer from eIsland is too low.

Mr O'Brien for his part feels that €1.10 a share is a fair offer given the additional risks he is taking on with a full bid for Eircom rather than a more limited offer to buy Eircom's fixed-line assets.

Without a counter-bid, Eircom is in the difficult position of having no clear alternative to offer shareholders if it rejects eIsland's €2.42 billion offer for the company.

A former president of Canadian networking equipment company Newbridge Networks, Mr Flynn negotiated its $7.1 billion sale to Alcatel in March last year.

He subsequently became president of Alcatel's carrier networking group and carrier internetworking division.

Mr Flynn left Alcatel at the end of last month, although his departure did not warrant a public announcement.

Instead, news that he had left emerged through a message to staff which said: "The integration [of Newbridge] is now complete and he has reached all his milestones and goals and now he has decided to move on."

Mr Flynn is thought to be extremely wealthy, largely as a result of the Alcatel acquisition of Newbridge.

He lives in Scotland in an estate outside Glasgow (he is a fanatical Celtic supporter) where reportedly, a videoconference link allowed him keep in touch with his family while he travelled on business for Alcatel.

When appointed head of Alcatel's carrier networking division, Mr Flynn said that at some stage he would like to take on another European company. "I think I'm better with a company that's struggling. I'm the guy to turn it around."