Editing Meteor (mobile network) (section)

===Acquisition by eircom===
[[Image:Meteorlogonew.png|right|thumb|Briefly used '''Meteor''' logo variant (2005–2007)]]
In early 2005 several Irish newspapers reported that Western Wireless had been approached with a view to selling Meteor. On 9 July 2005 it was reported by [[The Irish Times]] that there had been three bidders for Meteor: [[Eir (telecommunications)|eircom]], [[Smart Telecom]], and a consortium led by [[Denis O'Brien]]. It was considered that the probability of eircom winning, was looking increasingly unlikely due to their heavy debt of approximately €1.9 billion. It seemed unlikely they could afford it, should the price have topped €400 million. However, on 14 July 2005, [[RTÉ News]] reported on their business website<ref>[http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0714/meteor-business.html RTÉ.ie Meteor Bidding]</ref> that Denis O'Brien had withdrawn from bidding, and that it was understood that eircom was the top bidder at €410m. On 21 July it was announced that Smart Telecom had also withdrawn, leaving eircom as the sole bidder. On 25 July eircom announced that it had agreed to purchase the company for €420m. On 18 November 2005 the Competition Authority approved, subject to conditions (primarily, that separate accounts continue to be published for Meteor). The purchase was completed on 23 November 2005.