Eircom's shareholders, Singapore Technologies Telemedia and the company's employee trust, have scrapped a plan to invest in the company and maintain control of it due to the eurozone crisis.
The unexpected development has now left the door open for a consortium of lenders including banks and private equity funds to take ownership of the country's largest phone group.
It marks the second time in a week that a major corporate deal has collapsed due to the uncertainty over the euro.
Last Friday Canada Life's owner Great West Life pulled out of talks to buy Irish Life forcing the taxpayer to put €1.3 billion into Irish Life's parent group.
This afternoon Eircom said it had received two proposals from its lenders on how to restructure its €3.75 billion debt.
But its shareholders, Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) and the company's trade union ESOT, had not submitted a proposal.
Eircom said the shareholders had taken the decision due to "macro-economic concerns over the wider Eurozone."
They will monitor the situation, they said.
Two separate sets of lenders now have proposals on the table which could see them take over Eircom.
The two proposals are from a group of first lien senior lenders, and a group of the second lien senior lenders. Details of the proposals remain confidential, Eircom said.
The company's independent directors will evaluate the two proposals and submit a report to the full board of the Eircom Group.
"While the current shareholders have not yet submitted a proposal, the independent directors and management will continue to encourage both shareholders to do so," said Paul Donovan, Eircom's chief executive.
"However, the immediate priority is to ensure that practical progress with regard to the balance sheet remediation process takes place," he added.
The Eircom had set a 2 December deadline to submit proposals.
The company said it had requested a covenant waiver from its senior lenders from December 15 until the end of January.
