Eircom - Ireland's incumbent telco - could be about to be snapped up after confirming it has received an approach from a potential bidder.

At this stage it's not known who is sniffing around Eircom but Swisscom and Deutsche Telekom have been named in press reports as potential suitors.

"The company has received a preliminary approach from a potential offeror that may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company," said Eircom in a statement.

There's a heck of a lot going on in the telecoms sector at the moment. Satellite broadcaster Sky is buying into broadband with the £211m acquisition of local loop unbudnling outfit Easynet.

Yesterday Deutsche Telekom announced plans to axe 32,000 jobs and on Monday, O2 agreed to be bought by Telefonica for £18bn as the Spanish telco looks to expand its operations into UK and Germany. ®