The battle has taken many unexpected twists, none more surprising than the decision of Mr Denis O'Brien eIsland consortium, to increase its bid to above That of Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Valentia group. As things now stand, the board is still recommending the lower Valentia offer, due to the wishes.. of its two main shareholders. Meanwhile, whichever consortium, wins will have little cash left to invest in developing key telecommunications infrastructure.For Eircom's small shareholders, the likely return is higher than anticipated when the process started. However they still may not benefit from The highest offer. Eircom's board bas decided to stick with the Valentia bid, manly because its biggest single shareholder, .Comsource, has committed to it. Comsource, which holds the shares on behalf of KPN of the Netherlands and Telia of Sweden, has given an undertaking to Valentia and says that eIsland must bid higher if it is to be released from this. Mr O'Brien's consortium may yet increase its bid for this reason. If it does not KPN and Telia will look foolish for locking in so quickly with Valentia and small shareholders will be disadvantaged as a result.The other big shareholder is the Employee Ownership Trust. It has also committed to Valentia, encouraged by a deal under which it will increase shareholding from its current level of 14.9 percent to 29.9 percent. As the ESOT - which ho9lds the shares on behalf of Eircom employees - will pay the bid price for the shares it buys to increase its stake, it is quite happy to accept the lower Valentia offer. The fact that this will not suit small shareholders is no concern of the ESOT, but does illustrate how large shareholding blocs are holding sway.What of the wider interests of the economy? Unfortunately, whichever consortium wins will be so heavily indebted that it will have little spare cash for investment in infrastructure. This is worrying, as the Republic is now lagging behind in the deployment of many advanced telecommunications services.With all the main players in the sector now owned by foreign multi-nationals, the focus will be on maximising profits and development will suffer. The wider role of a state company in economic development has been largely neglected in the Eircom saga, it must be more carefully considered when the government decides on the future of other state companies such as Aer Lingus and the ESB.