You know it's been a tough integration when you see a quote like the one from Alcatel-Lucent's
departing CEO Pat Russo in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal: "The Marines that land on the beach and secure it aren't necessarily the same ones who you want there to keep the peace and build hospitals and schools," she said.
Departing chairman Serge Tchuruk expressed a similar thought in less martial language. "The merger is now behind us," Tchuruk, who had served as CEO of Alcatel SA prior to the merger, said in a statement on Tuesday. "It is now time that the company acquires a personality of its own, independent from its two predecessors."
Looks like they hope Alcatel-Lucent can follow a path like the one the 2001 Hewlett-Packard Co.-Compaq Computer Corp. merger eventually took, where a controversial and complex deal was eventually made to work by a new leadership team. But Alcatel-Lucent's new leaders (whoever they turn out to be; a search is underway) will face some challenges that Mark Hurd, HP's current CEO, didn't face. Andrea Orr, writing in today's Deal, foresees a
major restructuring and significant assets sales in a market that is not clamoring for makers of telecom gear. And that trans-Atlantic
culture gap is apparently far wider than the one at HP-Compaq.
On the plus side, this is not a deal that has to end in complete retreat, as Daimler AG's ownership of Chrysler did. On paper, at least. consolidation in this industry still makes sense. Perhaps some citizen-of-the-world sort of CEO, neither American nor French, will be found to make it work in practice. Brazilian Carlos Ghosn became a hero in Japan and one of the auto industry's leading executives for turning Japan's Nissan Motors Co. Ltd. around on behalf of France's Renault SA. Any takers out there? -
Kenneth Klee
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Juergen Lasowski
And the winners are...
Well, it is now time that the company acquires a personality of its own, independent from its two predecessors.