Investors in Franco-American equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent are exerting pressure on the board to replace Ben Verwaayen as head of the company, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Citing people familiar with the situation, the newspaper said that…
Investors in Franco-American equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent are exerting pressure on the board to replace Ben Verwaayen as head of the company, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Citing people familiar with the situation, the newspaper said that investors are losing patience with the CEO’s attempt to turn the company around and that potential outside successors have informally been approached.
But in a statement, Philippe Camus, chairman of the board, said: “Ben Verwaayen is an extremely effective CEO of Alcatel-Lucent. In spite of challenging external economic conditions, he is continuing to deliver on the ALU transformation. The board, myself and Ben are focused entirely on that task alone.”
In early November, the company lowered its profit forecast for 2011 referring to economic uncertainty in European markets.
Alcatel, whose shares have substantially dropped since July, currently has a market cap of US$4bn.
