Investors in Eircom are not the only ones to have been burned in the market rout of telecoms companies. Some 4,500 Irish shareholders bought into Deutsche Telekom in two offers - at €37.50 on June 28th, 1999 and at €63.50 on June 17th, 2000. Last week the shares, dubbed Volksaktie (the people's share) in Germany when the company floated in 1996, slipped below the initial public offer price of €14.30 for the first time. After months of steady decline since they hit a high of €102.9 in March 2000, the shares touched €14.13.