Is the telecom equipment market finally poised to consolidate? Maybe it's about to happen amid a report in the Wall St. Journal that Ericsson plans to acquire Marconi's networking equipment business for $2.1 billion. Mind you, this will be a small dent in the supply side of the telecom market that has become increasingly competitive and margin-thin with the rise of low-cost Chinese suppliers (and possibly Indian players in the future as the market develops and suppliers such as Nortel and Nokia establish local manufacturing operations through partnerships and joint ventures.) As Om Malik quickly pointed out earlier today, Marconi's future became unclear earlier this year when it failed to win any of BT's $19 billion next-generation network contract - a huge blow given Marconi was a key supplier to BT. Given Ericsson's focus on the wireless business in recent years, it will be interesting to see how the acquisition of the Marconi business fits into Ericsson's strategic plans. And while Marconi sort of being taken out of the market is interesting, the real action will be quasi-tier one targets such as Lucent and Nortel. Lucent is clearly the more obvious candidate (Alcatel?) given it doesn't have any of the accounting, financial and management woes of Nortel. Then again, there have been plenty of rumors about Siemens and Nokia sniffing at Nortel so maybe the Ericsson strategic thrust will encourage/inspire other big moves.