Businessman Denis O'Brien has dropped out of the race to buy the State's third mobile phone company, Meteor.
Mr O'Brien's consortium are unwilling to support a bid that values Meteor at over €400 million, according to a source.
The exit of Mr O'Brien leaves just Eircom and Smart Telecom in the bidding process.
The sealed bids are expected to be worth over €400 million and will be evaluated by Deutsche Bank, the company running the auction process for Meteor's US parent, Western Wireless.
