He has shown himself one of a new breed of German executives dedicated to shareholder value, a trait that has boosted his personal stock along with Mannesmann's share price and secured him a job at the merged group.

Under the friendly merger terms ann - ounced on Thursday, Esser will take an executive post in the merged company initially and later become deputy chairman of the combined group.

The post comes as a reward to the man who masterminded Mannesmann's vigorous three-month defence against Vodafone's audacious bid.

Asked about possible compensation to Esser for accepting a deal in the end, Vodafone chief executive Chris Gent said late on Thursday, "I don't know what he's going to get. He does deserve to be rewarded for what he has done."

Having transformed Mannesmann from a mundane engineering firm to one of Europe's most exciting telecoms companies, Esser showed a steely determination to ensure the best possible deal for his shareholders in the face of the Vodafone bid.

Esser initially capitalised on a wave of national discontent at the idea of Mannesmann, one of Germany's grandest industrial concerns, being taken over by a foreign firm - a prospect that won chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's support for the defence.

He then plotted a measured defence, coolly outlining his strategy for delivering faster growth than he believed Mannesmann shareholders would enjoy under a merged group.

"My view is that he's got better over the period," said one London-based analyst who asked not to be named. "The German parochialism card he played initially didn't go down well. Esser has, over the course of time, become more investor friendly."

Esser argued that Mannesmann's integrated mobile, fixed-line and Internet strategy would deliver more than 30 per cent profit growth annually over the next three years compared to 18 per cent offered by Vodafone.h owever, as Thursday's deal showed, not all were convinced.

"The argument that Mannesmann is growing faster does not really hold because it's a less mature business than Vodafone," said one London-based analyst.

But by using the growth forecast to insist that Mannesmann shareholders would have to gain the majority of a merged group, Esser gave himself a strong position with which to bargain.

With an estimated 60-plus per cent of Mannesmann shareholders based outside Germany, Esser had matched Vodafone's charismatic chief Chris Gent in the jet-setting world and was a role model for a modernised "Germany AG" in his visits to investors around the globe.

After his campaign, many analysts regarded Mannesmann and software group SAP AG as leaders in delivering shareholder value in Germany.

Following his appointment last May, Mannesmann's share price rose some 135 per cent, outpacing a 35 per cent rise in Germany's blue-chip DAX index.

Much of Germany's corporate landscape remains marked by cosy relationships between managers, the state and workers' councils, more suited to post-World War Two reconstruction than the cut-and-thrust of modern international business. Esser, however, showed himself capable of jousting with Gent, who is well versed in the sometimes aggressive tactics of British and US businesses. A fluent English speaker, Esser's time spent studying business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and practising law in New York prepared him well for the landmark takeover battle.