No ‘Pat’ on the Back Here: Russo out at ALU

With yet another quarterly loss now on the books, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) has to make some kind of meaningful gesture to stockholders. Today, that gesture turned out to be CEO Pat Russo’s resignation.

We all knew it was coming. Little has worked well for Alcatel since the (rather disastrous) Lucent acquisition. Certainly the transaction was a disaster for the more than 12,000 people who lost their jobs. Russo, as company head, has taken the brunt of the criticism, and analysts and insiders have said for months she would lose her job. It’s finally happened. The France-based company is saying au revoir to Russo and chairman Serge Tchuruk, who oversaw the Lucent takeover. News reports say Russo and Tchuruk are stepping down voluntarily. But ‘voluntary’ seems a little weak when shareholders have pushed for her ouster for months, and when Alcatel-Lucent just reported second-quarter losses of, get this, $1.73 billion.

CNET: Alcatel-Lucent CEO and chairman forced out

Information Week: Chairman, CEO To Leave Alcatel-Lucent After More Losses

Related Articles

Worst of 2007: Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent Revises Job Cuts Upward to 12,500

Alcatel, Lucent Merger to Create Superpower

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines

Read Comments [1]