Just watched the “Eircom Shares” saga on RTE 1, it certainly brings me back unpleasant memories of dabbling in stocks and shares.
What can would one say ? like “Ripped off” is what one can say.
Small shareholders who owned most of the company where ripped off by “fat Cats”, the company ended up being bought by Tony O’ Reilly of Heinz and the independent news and media for a billion pounds less that it was worth. Eircom previously had demerged Eircell the jewel in the crown of the business for Vodafone paper.
The “sale” of Eircell proved to make no sense and was the grower in the company. The vultures quickly saw their chance and bid for the remaining Eircom business. O’Reillys Valentia bought Eircom at a discount and subsequently made the business give him over IR£ 700 million . The company racked increasing debts with every change over in owner, there was little or no money to invest in new services .
The company had started off debt free and now owes in the billions