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.

Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) CEO departs, a year late originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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.

Alcatel-Lucent goes for big cuts -- another 4,000 lose their jobs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Alcatel-Lucent cuts 12,500 jobs ... but pays dividend originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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.

Alcatel-Lucent: The French Disconnection originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.