MARCONI is no stranger to a collapsing share price. In dropping from £15 to diddly-squat between 2000 and 2003 it became the embarrassed standard bearer for overblown dot-comery. Marconi shares showed investors a clean pair of heels when the company obliterated its old equity owners by exchanging its mountain of debt into a swamp of new equity. In the year after the debt-for-equity capital reorganisation they all but trebled in value.
Yesterday saw investors give Marconi shares the sort of drubbing reminiscent of the bad old days. In truth, Marconi has struggled to sustain value in its shares over the past 12 months. Having peaked at 729p this time last year the stock slumped 30 per cent by the middle of October. Yesterday the stock