Eircom would have hoped for a somewhat gentler entry to the world of the public marketplace. First the bottom fell out of its share price leaving novice investors with a bad taste in their mouths and possibly undermining plans by the Government to guide other State utilities down the same path.

Next, Dublin's commercial and financial core was left incommunicado for hours at a critical time on a Friday afternoon after what was termed a freak coincidence of events attributable variously to a software glitch and flooding brought down both its land-line service and its high-flying Eircell mobile facility.

Just as it might have thought the worst was over, KPN, its largest shareholder, grabbed its options to enlarge its stake in the company and then decided to sell the lot. Less surprising was the decision of Telia to do the same in order to overcome competition concerns following its merger with Telenor.

The only crumb of comfort for the besieged bosses at Eircom was the knowledge that its largest rival, Esat Telecom, was in no position to gloat. Its board spent the week fending off a hostile bid for the company from its erstwhile partner in Esat Digifone, its mobile phone subsidiary, Telenor - or Newtel as the combined Telia/Telenor combine will be called.