The Eircom board is meeting to consider the latest bid by Mr Denis O’Brien’s eIsland consortium of euro 1.36 per share.
The offer is nine cents higher than the offer made by Sir Anthony O’Reilly’s Valentia group.
An Eircom spokesperson said the board had started the meeting this morning at 10.00 and that a conclusion - if any - was not expected until later in the day.
The eIsland consortium has raised its offer for Eircom's fixed-line business for the second time in two weeks, Eircom announced today.
Until this morning, the board had rejected advances made by eIsland, which was told last month it would have to make an offer of at least euro 1.35 to release KPN and Telia, who own 35 per cent of shares, from their obligation to sell to Valentia.
The employees' trust, which owns 15 per cent of shares, has also given their commitment to the Valentia bid, but the new offer is likely to put pressure on them to change.
A statement by Eircom this morning said: "The board of Eircom confirms that it has received a revised proposal from eIsland in which it has increased its proposed offer to a total consideration of euro 1.36 per ordinary share which comprises a cash offer of euro 1.3354 per ordinary share plus the final dividend in respect of the financial year ended 31 March 2001 of euro 0.0246 per ordinary share."
Eircom has already sold its mobile phone interests to Vodafone while retaining the fixed-line business, which has over 1.5 million customers.