Executive payments 'did not influence takeover' - phone chief

Vodafone’s former chief executive testified today that his company’s takeover in 2000 of mobile phone firm Mannesmann was determined purely by market pressures, and was not influenced by executive payments under scrutiny at the trial of the German mobile operator’s former head.

Chris Gent told a state court in Duesseldorf that Klaus Esser, the Mannesmann chief executive, never pushed for a payoff for himself – supporting Esser’s defence against charges that he benefited improperly from the takeover.