Just when it looked as though Eircom's longsuffering small shareholders might at last at least recoup their initial investment, doubt has resurfaced.

Far from being the certainty initially portrayed, it seems there is plenty of hard talking to be done between Eircom and Vodafone over the sale of the mobile phone subsidiary Eircell.

On top of poor market sentiment for technology and telecoms stocks in general and Vodafone's own problems with its portfolio of investors and companies, the doubts have hit the Eircom share price to the extent that it fell this week to a level below that at which Vodafone made its approach.

At the same time, there is no solid deal in the pipeline for the rump of the company that would remain if Eircell were to be sold off.

It looks as if shareholders will have to bide their time a little before taking advantage of any opportunity to sell.