The 2,500 Irish investors who recently bought shares in Deutsche Telekom saw the new share issue get off to a tentative start.

Most analysts believe its progress will be dictated by how aggressive the company is prepared to be to realise its ambition of becoming a global player in all of the big markets.

Deutsche Telekom has a war chest of around €17 billion (£13.4 billion), giving it huge resources to go on the acquisition trail. It is known to be eyeing up acquisitions in Britain and the US. Deutsche Telekom chairman, Mr Ron Sommer, has promised that the company will pursue acquisitions in fast-growing areas such as mobile phones and Internet services as part of its efforts to diversify its earnings away from the German market. Irish investors sought to invest £40 million (€51 million) in the issue and most will get around half of what they subscribed for.