Alca-Lu disputes report, backs Russo

Alcatel-Lucent's board of directors issued a statement late yesterday that disputed French newspaper Les Echos' report last week that CEO Patricia Russo was losing board support and faced a one-month deadline to develop a workable restructuring plan. The statement further said "the board supports Pat Russo and the leadership team."

While the Les Echos report of what sounded like an ultimatum snowballed across the web last week (we did our part), critics of the company might only see this statement as new reason to increase scrutiny, and ask why the board is so supportive of a leadership team that has issued three earnings warnings within the last year. (Let it be noted that our view is that while the company has stumbled, it needs more time to deploy some progressive restructuring ideas.)

For more:
- Read this update at MarketWatch