The debate regarding the slow pace of growth being experienced by the US economy is likely to be a long-running one that will dominate the financial columns for much of this year.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter became the first major Wall Street firm to officially forecast that the US would endure a recession in the first half of this year. (Recession in the US is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.) Despite the growing consensus that the US, and indeed global, economic growth will slow significantly this year, many stock markets have recently shown an ability to react to bad news calmly.

Indeed, the Nasdaq has recovered quite sharply from its recent lows and many telecom stocks have regained some lost ground.

Share price volatility continues to be at its highest in the TMT sector of the market. Telecom stocks continue to be pressurised by their huge funding requirements and growing worries that revenues from new products and services will be slower to come through due to the weaker near-term global economic outlook. Eircom shareholders are now directly exposed to these global trends due to the deal to sell Eircell to Vodafone, the largest mobile phone company in the world. In practice approximately 70 per cent of Eircom's stock market capitalisation is now effectively made up of Vodafone shares, assuming that the deal does eventually go through.

There has been much media comment as to whether the deal will eventually close. This is due to the option that the Eircom board negotiated to walk away from the transaction, scheduled to close in March, if the Vodafone share price was trading below £2.20 sterling at that time.

In recent weeks the Vodafone price has fallen below this hurdle although at the time of writing it is trading around 230p. If the Vodafone share price is below 220p in March it will certainly present an agonising decision for the Eircom board, and ultimately its shareholders.

The key factor that will determine the view of the Eircom board will be whether the low Vodafone share price is the result of a generally weak market or whether it proves to be the result of stock-specific issues related to Vodafone itself.

If the price drops below the critical 220p level due to a contraction in market valuations for mobile phone assets, then it is likely that the deal will still go ahead.

In such a scenario the likelihood of another operator entering the fray to pay a higher price for Eircell would be extremely low.

If, on the other hand, the Vodafone share price were to decline sharply because of specific developments related to the company itself, then the deal could unravel. In such a scenario, another operator might be interested and capable of paying a higher price for the Eircell assets.

Such an outcome seems unlikely. Vodafone is rated extremely highly by most analysts and is financially far stronger than its competitors.

There is an issue regarding an overhang of unsold Vodafone stock in the market that is acting as a technical factor currently depressing the share price. However the underlying business is performing extremely well and strategically Vodafone seems to be very well positioned to benefit in the long-term from the introduction of new mobile technologies.

The Vodafone deal does seem to offer long-suffering Eircom shareholders the best option of eventually recouping their initial investment and most must be fervently hoping that the sale of Eircell will be successfully concluded in March.