Eircom selling Meteor

Blaster99

So B&B are selling the retail part of eircom and Meteor. Why sell Meteor? I thought that's the only part of the company that has any growth?

Solair

Well, I suppose there's an advantage to having an integrated mobile/fixed line provider thesedays. It would be quite a selling point as none of the other mobile operators in Ireland are in that scenario anymore.

thebman

That and Meteor have never managed to get much market share. They started off with terrible network coverage although they were cheap and the word of mouth spread.

I'm with Meteor and I was still getting asked up to a year or two ago, is the coverage not crap with them. Its hard to undo the damage caused by word of mouth as people believe what happened to a friend of a friend over tv advertising (in general).

damien

Wonder where the Indo got their info...

If eircom get their MNVO they might as well sell Meteor to get enough cash to pay off their significant debt. Babcock and Brown want to invest in infrastructure only companies, less hassle.

Cabaal

brim4brim wrote:

I'm with Meteor and I was still getting asked up to a year or two ago, is the coverage not crap with them. Its hard to undo the damage caused by word of mouth as people believe what happened to a friend of a friend over tv advertising (in general).

While I hate Eircom I do like Meteor and I find their coverage fine but I also do get the same question and it took my while to convience the girlfriend to switch to them (for the free calls/txts) no she swears by them and won't go back to Vodafone.

Ultimately the damage caused back in 2001/2002/2003 with crap coverage did badly affect Meteor, hell I remember people in college getting loads of free credit on their new meteor phones but they couldn't use them half the time around the place

Sponge Bob

ericom would only sell meteor ( including a 3g licence which is left unsaid) if their c.€4bn debt was up **** creek on the international bond market .

The international bond market itself IS up **** creek, see here

This explains their predicament. Neverthless its uncertain whether the 3g licence is being sold. Were that the case then its only a matter of time before it all goes tits up. The sentiment against debt bombs like eircom has changed markedly.

Fitzee

Slightly aside, what's up with Meteor and 3G? Nothing happening looks like and I thought that they had strict deadlines to meet rolling out the network............ Or is it the same story, the rules don't really apply if it's eircom, they can just continue to take the piss as long as they like???:p

watty

Pointless eircom going further in debt to buy meteor, but then if the earlier carpet baggers/asset strippers hadn't sold the original mobile arm...

eircom don't have the money for 3G. It would add maybe another €300M to the debt. I doubt they can borrow anymore.

If they sell eircom retail that gives them another company they can make money from with the high line rental, but with eircom retail in B&B they have its high overheads and make no real money from it.

The eircom network division could also have as much staff as possible in the sold eircom retail and thus be slim/mean/efficent and profitable.

However someone will be be silly enough to buy the eircom retail, which will be artifically bloated at time of sale.

Tom Young

Well the market share and dynamic has changed in terms of the meteor customer base and indeed the licenses that both eircom Ltd and meteor could transfer to a new acquirer, once an MVNO was resolved.

So I'd agree that selling would create more funds to repay debt. The company hasn't a pot to piddle in at the moment according to many sources.