Last week's $239 million (€228 million) buyout of Belfast-based Apion by US mobile Internet company Phone.com reminds Current Account of the Logica £57 million (€88 million) buyout of Aldiscon two years ago. Apion was spun off from Aldiscon, but not sold as part of it.

Now Gilbert Little and the other members of the Apion board, many of them ex-Aldiscon, have done it again, splitting part of Apion off as Aepona and not including this in the deal.

Aepona will concentrate on the telecom software services side of former Apion's business, and will be hoping Little can pull off a hat trick of building companies worthy of price tags as long as telephone numbers.

Despite share options becoming established in the telecoms and Internet business, industry insiders say that as in Aldiscon, most staff in Apion shared in little if any of last week's $239 million windfall. It seems highly valued software engineers can be twice bitten before they turn shy.