The bigger they come, the harder they fall. Deutsche Telekom shares initially dropped by almost a tenth yesterday. Its stagnant sales and eroding margins were not to blame: in European telecommunications, these are nothing special. The real issue was guidance. Telekom had said previously it was spending heavily in order to boost future growth. Now it says only the first part of this sequence will hold true. Its new estimate of 2007 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation is 12 per cent below its November forecast.

Investors can console themselves with two facts. First, Blackstone has lost more than they have. The private equity group took a 4.5 per cent "strategic" stake in April, the value of which has fallen by about €550m, or a fifth. Robbed of its cloak of secrecy and its unconventional financing, private equity's stock picking looks all too human. The second is that Telekom's peers share its pain. The proportion of German lines unbundled by competitors is similar to France, Europe's broadband blood bath. Mobile margins are falling across the continent.