ESAT and Telenor have been trading punches on the value of Esat's business. Telenor says that until it made its offer Esat's stock had underperformed the Nasdaq by 29 per cent last year.

This was firmly rejected by Esat in its defence document published on Wednesday. Using a somewhat different benchmark, it said its share price had risen by 400 per cent since IPO, in September 1997 to November 30th last, outperforming the Nasdaq Telecommunications Index by 224 per cent.

Regardless of the benchmarks, the argument was simple: Esat was saying it had delivered value to shareholders since it floated, whereas Telenor was saying it had not.

The Esat defence document also argues that Esat enjoys one of the strongest positions in its market relative to other European alternative providers, being number two in the Irish fixed-line market and the mobile market and number one in the Irish corporate ISP and consumer ISP market and is well-advanced on deploying a nationwide network.

Esat also makes the point that it has a two-year head start on other alternative operators regarding deploying a nationwide network.

On the mobile side, it says that the delay in granting the third mobile licence has given Esat Digifone a substantial extra period (up to a year) to consolidate its market position. At the end of September last, it had 42 per cent of the GSM market.

Both Esat and Telenor have cited other buyouts of telecoms companies to support their case and demonstrate why the shares are worth more or less. Comparability is always hard because it is difficult to compare like with like. Ultimately it will come down to a couple of key factors: how the share price performs in the run-up to January 14th and whether Esat can find a white knight to bid more.

Analysts believe to win the bid, Telenor will probably have to sweeten its offer a little - increasing its bid to about $90 per share.