Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Chief Executive Patricia Russo held her job for so long and through so many periods of brutal earnings and staff reductions that it appeared that she had nine lives.

She went through the ninth one today. She and the company Chairman Serge Tchuruk will leave the company later this year. According to The Wall Street Journal, "With Alcatel-Lucent facing a sluggish market and fierce competitive pressures, the departures of the company's two figureheads does not come at an easy time." It does, however, come at the right time. Russo did everything in her power to scuttle the company.

Over the last year, shares in ALU have dropped from $14.55 to just above $5 in May. They have since recovered to about $6.

Supporters may say that the financial problems at Alcatel-Lucent were not of Russo's making. The market for telecom equipment has indeed been weak. But, the integration of the merger between the two companies was ill-conceived at the start and poorly executed moving forward.

It is time to let someone else have a turn at trying to fix the company.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

When Alcatel and Lucent agreed to merge in April 2006, there were the typical phrases in the press release: "new growth opportunities," "cost synergies," "global convergence," "increased scale," "global capabilities" and so on. Oh, and yes, it would "create enhanced value for shareholders."

Yet, there was something that was curious. The CEO of the new entity, Patricia Russo, said she would not learn French, even though Alcatel was based in France. Might this be a sign that there would be some cultural issues?

Alas, the fact remains that the benefits of the deal haven't materialized as Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) stock price has gone from $14.50 to $7.50.

Well, this week, Alcatel-Lucent had its annual meeting. No doubt, it wasn't fun as shareholders provided an earful. After all, the company had to write down $4.55 billion in asset value because of the merger (there were also thousands of layoffs).

Interestingly enough, shareholders passed a resolution that allows Alcatel-Lucent's board to rid its chairman/CEO with a majority vote instead of a two-thirds of a vote.

Unfortunately, I don't see this amounting to much. Keep in mind that -- with consolidation of wireless carriers -- its tough for equipment providers to get any leverage. Plus, the competition is still intense.

By the way, Russo apparently is learning to speak French now. And she even spoke some words at the meeting. However, she will need to learn a more important language: profits.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Since business at Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU), the telecommunications equipment supplier, can not get much worse, it has decided to fire more people. Four thousand souls will lose their jobs. The CFO is among that number.

The firm announced that [subscription required] it lost €345 million in the third quarter against a pro forma profit of €532 million last year. The company uses pro forma numbers to show the results of the corporation as if the merger had been completed in the 2006 period. Revenue fell 11% to €4.35 billion.

Alcatel-Lucent said that its wireless revenue had dropped during that quarter.

The company and its CEO Patricia Russo are now out of excuses. The reason for the merger of the US and French companies was to save hundreds of million of dollars in redundant costs and create a global sales force to sell the products of both companies. The move also ended competition between the firms, which should have allowed for less discounting to gain customers.

Based on results from competitor Ericsson, it appears that spending on equipment at big telecommunications companies has slowed down, at least for now. That makes Alcatel-Lucent's position even more difficult.

Even with further cost cuts, the company is not likely to recover if its core markets are drying up.

The merger is a bust.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24wallst.com.

When Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) merged last year, creating the world's biggest maker of telecommunications equipment, it said it would slash 9,000 jobs. Now, the company said the number of workers who will lose their job would be 12,500, or 16% or its workforce.

Not surprising, French unions have called for a strike on Feb. 15 to protest the job cuts. Now this could get ugly as Alcatel-Lucent also (surprisingly) announced today that the 2006 dividend will be 16 cents, giving shareholders a dividend yield of 1.1%.

The company also reported -- what Alcatel-Lucent CEO Russo called -- disappointing results, posting a net loss of €618 million ($802.84 million) for the three months ending Dec. 31, compared to a profit of €381 million the previous year. The company expects revenue for 2007 to rise by about 5%.

After rising 4.43% in yesterday's session, ALU shares continued to rise in Paris, gaining 2.8% on the cost cuts and dividend announcement. However, here ALU shares are down 2% in pre-market trading.

Late last year, I wrote a piece for Bloggingstocks.com on the Alcatel-Lucent merger. Basically, the company's CEO, Patricia Russo, said she would not learn French (even though the headquarters is in Paris). I thought this was a warning sign because it could be a hindrance to managing cultural issues.

Well, it looks like Russo can't speak Wall Street, either.

Today, Alcatel-Lucent announced that it will miss its fiscal fourth quarter. The company expects to break-even (which compares to net income of $739 million in the same period a year ago) and revenues should be down about 16% to $5.72 billion.

Why the meltdown? Well, it could be that customers are holding-off because of the merger.

There is also intense competition, especially from China (such as Huawei). Another big problem is the consolidation of major telecom carriers.

On the news, Wall Street is dumping the stock. The current stock price is down 8% to $13.04.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.