France’s struggling equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent has hired Michel Combes as its new CEO.
Combes, the former CEO of Vodafone Europe, replaces Ben Verwaayen who stepped down from the role earlier this month after failing to return the company to…
France’s struggling equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent has hired Michel Combes as its new CEO.
Combes, the former CEO of Vodafone Europe, replaces Ben Verwaayen who stepped down from the role earlier this month after failing to return the company to long-term profitability.
Combes will start on 1 April and join Alcatel-Lucent’s board on 7 May at the vendor’s annual general meeting, subject to shareholder approval.
He will work with Verwaayen over the next few weeks in a transitional phase.
Combes was all set to take the reins at operator SFR last summer, but a management shake-up at SFR parent Vivendi thwarted that career move.
Before his role at Vodafone, which he held between 2008 and 2012, Combes was CEO at telecoms and broadcast infrastructure group TDF. He was CFO at France Telecom prior to that.
Commenting on Combes’ appointment, Alcatel-Lucent’s chair Philippe Camus said: “His deep knowledge of the industry as well as his experience of major business and financial transformation at a worldwide level will be pivotal in helping the company pursue its aggressive transformation, while meeting customer needs with disruptive innovation.”
Alcatel-Lucent, which was created by a merger in 2006, has faced financial difficulties in the past few years. The company reported a net loss of €1.37bn in 2012 – down 5.7% year-on-year.
Alcatel-Lucent recently issued €2bn credit facilities underwritten by Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs and secured against the company’s valuable patent portfolio.
