The race for Marconi is nearly over - bidders have until tomorrow morning to get their offers in.

The telco equipment maker has been looking for a buyer since May when it failed to get on BT's supplier list for its 21CN next generation network.

Alcatel and Ericsson are still interested in the once mighty British firm, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The paper said the outcome of the pensions issue will be as important as the attitude of shareholders.

Marconi said it was in talks back in August but refused to name names. Chinese firm Huawei Technologies was mentioned at the time.

One obstacle to the takeover is a hole in Marconi's pension fund. UK pension regulators want £400m put aside to cover the company's pension liabilities.

More from the Telegraph here. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/10/23/cnmarc23.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/10/23/ixcitytop.html)®

Related stories

Marconi ups revs in Q2 (25 November 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/25/marconi_revs/
Ericsson buys Marconi (25 October 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/25/ericsson_buys_marconi/
Ericsson set to buy Marconi (10 October 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/10/ericsson_sniffs_marconi/
Marconi confirms bid talks (8 August 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/08/marconi_bid_talks/
Marconi revs flat (3 August 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/03/marconi_results/
Cardiff picked for 21CN launch (4 July 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/04/cardiff_21cn/
Marconi mulls bleak future following BT bombshell (3 May 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/03/marconi_bt/