Headline in 2001: "O'Reilly poised for Eircom victory."
Headline in 2011: "O'Brien is poised for Eircom bid."
What a difference a decade has made in the fortune of Ireland's two media entrepreneurs - Tony O'Reilly and Denis O'Brien.
Back in 2001, O'Reilly - then chairman of Independent News & Media (INM) - was on his way to winning the battle for Eircom, Ireland's dominant telecoms company.
O'Reilly's consortium beat off one headed by O'Brien and took the helm for five years until Eircom was sold off in 2006 to an Australian investment group, Babcock and Brown.
That company later collapsed and a subsidiary, BCM, assumed control and rebranded itself as Eircom Holdings.
Meanwhile, O'Brien having lost the 2001 bid battle, went on to build his mobile phone network provider, Digicel, into a hugely profitable company.
He also became a thorn in O'Reilly's side by buying into INM and making demands that O'Reilly and his successor as chief executive, his son, Gavin, have found unacceptable.
However, INM did eventually accede to one persistent O'Brien demand by selling off The Independent titles in Britain.
Overall, O'Reilly's star has fallen while O'Brien's has risen. Now comes today's Sunday Times report - unconfirmed by O'Brien's people - that Digicel has made an approach for Eircom.
The former state telecom company is in pretty bad shape just now, desperately trying to restructure debts reputed to total £3.3bn.
Source: Sunday Times
