Marconi Corporation, the UK-listed telecoms engineering group, could be forced to put itself up for sale after unexpectedly losing on a contract to upgrade BT's UK telecoms network, according to senior Marconi sources cited by a report in The Times. Either a partial or outright sale of the business might be the best way forward for Marconi shareholders. Huawei, Marconi's Chinese counterpart, was touted as a likely bidder by analysts. Marconi's tender lost out on price to work on BT's £10bn network upgrade, the report said. The contract would have been worth £500m to £700m over five years to Marconi.