Alcatel-Lucent nearing CEO hiring?

Alcatel-Lucent's stock value still was jumping Wednesday after a report circulated Tuesday that the Paris company was close to hiring former Alcatel executive Mike Quigley as CEO. The report came from a French newspaper, Le Canard Enchaine (The Chained-up Duck), that refers to itself as a "weekly satirical newspaper" that also often takes investigative bents (such interesting media times we live in). Alca-Lu declined to comment on the report.

Still, it would not be surprising if the company, which said it wanted to move fast after former CEO Patricia Russo left last month, was nearing announcement of a new top executive. Quigley left Alcatel-Lucent a couple years ago, reportedly for medical reasons. But he also was chief operating officer of Alcatel prior to the Alca-Lu merger, and when Russo took the CEO role at the combined company, some saw it as Quigley getting passed over for the job.

Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent has lost several other executives in the last two years. Most recently, former Alca-Lu exec Roger Heinz moved to tellabs to become executive vice president of global sales and service.

For more:
- see this Associated Press story [1] at The International Herald Tribune
- read this story [2] on Heinz at Telecommunications

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Alcatel-Lucent CEO Russo and Chairman Serge Tchuruk stepped down last month. Alcatel-Lucent report [3]
Alcatel-Lucent also had been hounded by rumors that former BT and Alca-Lu exec Ben Verwaayen could return as CEO. Alcatel-Lucent report [4]