Eircom is the Robbie Keane of the telco sector

The announcement by Eircom on Tuesday that it had rejected a bid of up to €3.3 billion for the business was peculiarly timed. The offer was apparently made a couple of months ago. Why announce it now?

Eircom made its announcement via a late missive to the Irish Stock Exchange. The company is not listed, of course, but about €350 million of its bonds still trade on the ISE. The offer, had it been accepted, would have represented Eircom’s seventh change in ownership in 15 years.

Eircom has to be the Robbie Keane (inset) of telecoms: fundamentally solid, occasionally infuriating, but remarkably consistent given the upheaval it has endured over the last decade or so.

Eircom said it rejected the bid because it was too low. Funny, that, because its shareholders would have taken a suitor’s arm off at the elbow for an offer like that last summer when it was being touted around. Another measure of the growing confidence in the Irish economy?

The company says the matter is now "not being progressed". With all due respect to Richard Moat, Eircom's highly-capable chief executive, Eircom doesn't get to decide that on its own.

So who wants to ask Eircom up to dance this time?

A trade buyer – a company which is strategically interested in the business – would be ideal for Eircom, as it tries to make its way in the fibre and digital world. Does Denis O’Brien fancy another crack at Eircom? No evidence has emerged to suggest he does. Or is it another financial suitor, such as a hedge fund, which sees another opportunity for a spot of balance sheet engineering around its €2.3 billion debts?

The Irish Times revealed yesterday that Blackstone, previously Eircom's biggest shareholder with 30 per cent, has sold a quarter of the telco to US fund Anchorage Capital. Anchorage now owns a third of the business. It looks like an unlikely buyer of a strategic telecoms asset, so maybe it is positioning itself to flip its stake to another bidder.

The Eircom ownership merry-go-round could yet start up once again.