Former Alcatel-Lucent CEO Michel Combes is reportedly set to assume the role of chief operating officer when he joins Altice (AMS:ATC) at the start of September.
Former Alcatel-Lucent CEO Michel Combes is reportedly set to assume the role of chief operating officer when he joins Altice (AMS:ATC) at the start of September.
Combes, once a classmate of Altice founder and controlling shareholder Patrick Drahi at École Polytechnique, was first linked with a move to the acquisitive telecoms group in June after negotiating the sale of Alcatel-Lucent to Nokia.
The news that Combes would become COO, first reported by Le Figaro earlier this week, fits with the cost-cutting reputation he established at Alcatel-Lucent. Amsterdam-based Altice’s model is to buy up operators with debt and transform them into leaner businesses by driving efficiencies and slashing costs.
Combes will also become chairman of Altice’s French subsidiary Numericable-SFR, according to a report in the FT citing people close to the situation.
Numericable-SFR has been trying to convince French authorities to allow it to takeover Bouygues Telecom, but without success. Combes, who helped navigate the tricky sale of Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent to Finland’s Nokia past the French government, may prove useful in its pursuit of Bouygues.
Altice did not reply to a request for comment on the appointment of Combes.
In an interview with TelecomFinance in late 2014, Combes said that in 18 months Alcatel-Lucent had been able to cut its costs by more than €660m and was confident that figure would rise to €1bn over the next 18 months.
The ‘Shift Plan’ Combes led turned Alcatel-Lucent into a more attractive acquisition target and in April this year Nokia agreed to pay €15.6bn (US$16.6bn) for the vendor.
Prior to joining Alcatel-Lucent in 2013, Combes was CEO of Vodafone Europe. He left that post in 2012 after five years to head up French mobile operator SFR – now owned by Altice – only for the appointment to fall through due to disagreements at SFR’s then-parent Vivendi.