O2 (Ireland) BT Group and 1 mm02 share for each British Telecommunications share they held. After the de-merger, most of mmO2's operations, including Digifone, were rebranded O2. mmO2 plc later became O2 plc and remained an independent company until 2005. On 31 October 2005 it was announced that Telefónica, S.A., the Spanish telecommunications company, had made a recommended takeover bid for O Ireland's parent company, O2 plc. This was then approved by shareholders and O was officially purchased in mid February 2006. The O2 brand is now used in several countries for Telefónica's mobile operations outside Spain and Latin America, where Telefónica
O2 (Ireland) O2 (Ireland) Telefónica Ireland was a broadband and telecommunications provider in Ireland that traded under the O2 brand (typeset as O). O2 Ireland was previously called Esat Digifone when it was owned by Esat Telecommunications (and Telenor) from 1997 to 2006. O2 Ireland became a subsidiary of Telefónica in 2006, after its parent company O2 in the United Kingdom was purchased. In June 2013, Hutchison Whampoa announced it would acquire the Irish arm of O2 for €780m. O2 was merged into Hutchison Whampoa's subsidiary Three Ireland in March 2015. In 1995 the then government, with Michael Lowry as Minister for