As one seasoned markets observer commented to Current Account when this newspaper broke the story of Barlo's bid for Athlone Extrusions: "We're seeing the beginning of the end of the Irish stock market."

That comment comes only a week after stock exchange boss Tom Healy was talking eulogistically about 40 listings on the Irish market in the next three years. Most of these, it seems, will be technology companies with a primary listing on Nasdaq or the Neuer Markt attracted by a secondary listing on the ISE's super-duper ITEQ market.

One thing seems certain - the stock market is in for some fundamental changes and a shake-out of companies and smaller stockbrokers seems likely.

Athlone Extrusions' departure from the market has been flagged in this column before, but we thought it would probably be a case of the management taking the company private rather than a trade sale to Barlo. Having done a management buyout once, Jimmy McGee and his team no doubt felt they didn't want to suffer the hassle again.

So who else is likely to exit the market? Irish Continental could be one of the next to leave. Having plummeted to a six-year low of €4.80 (£3.78) a week ago, ICG has suddenly made an amazing recovery and was recently trading at €6.23.