ESAT Telecom chairman Mr Denis O'Brien and fellow director Mr Leslie Buckley have paid almost £2 million (€2.5 million) for a majority shareholding in Ican, an Internet advertising company.

In return, the two investors will get an 80 per cent stake in Ican, which employs 16 people in Dublin. Ican said it would use the monies to expand the company into a "pan-European" company.

Ican founder and chief executive Mr Damian Ryan, who formed the company last year, will retain 20 per cent. He said that Mr O'Brien's and Mr Buckley's investment was a private one and had nothing to do with Esatm which has been actively acquiring Internet-related companies itself.

Mr Ryan said the company expected to employ 25-30 people by the end of next year. He said Ican would use the investment to maintain and grow its market share of the online advertising business.

Mr Ryan described the market as "fairly scattered" and said Ican would be the strongest player in the market at present. He said the online advertising market would be worth about £2.7 million this year, growing to £6 million by the end of next year and £15£20 million by 2003.

Ican says it has executed more than 200 online advertising campaigns for advertising agencies and their clients.

In a statement Mr Buckley said that Ican was uniquely positioned to capitalise on the explosion in Internet usage "both at home and abroad."

As well as Mr Buckley and Mr O'Brien, two others will be appointed to the Ican board. They are Mr Brendan O'Kelly, a director of Esat and ePower, a company which will compete in the deregulated electricity market, and Ms Maria Mahon, chief executive of the Irish Jobs Page, the online recruitment website which was acquired by Mr O'Brien and Mr Buckley earlier this year for close to £1 million.