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Swedes 'poised to win race for Marconi'(Coventry Evening Telegraph Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SWEDISH telecoms group Ericsson is poised to win the race to take control of struggling Coventry-based technology firm Marconi, it has been claimed. Ericsson is said to have submitted the highest bid for the group so far, reportedly trumping an offer made by Chinese firm Huawei. The Swedish firm is understood to have offered more than pounds 700 million for the group, according to reports, considerably higher than the pounds 647 million Marconi was valued at on Friday after its shares closed at 308.25p. The group is understood to think it can make substantial cost savings from a combined operation. A Marconi spokesman said that the reports were "rumours". Marconi employs more than 1,000 people in Coventry at its plant in New Century Park, Stoke. A takeover of Marconi by Ericsson is likely to be less controversial than one by Huawei. Members of the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee are understood to have expressed concerns about potentially sensitive defence and communications technology falling into the hands of a Chinese company. But whoever takes over Marconi will have to deal with the pounds 228 million deficit in its pension fund. The pension fund trustees can require the hole to be filled if they think the risks facing the company have increased as a result of the takeover. Marconi was forced to launch a strategic review after failing to win a contract with BT to work on the group's pounds 10 billion network upgrade. The group, which employs 4,300 people in the UK, stopped short of saying it was putting itself up for sale but analysts think a takeover of the group is the most likely option as Marconi is seen as being too small to compete with heavyweights such as Ericsson and Siemens. |