Alcatel-Lucent's CEO Ben Verwaayen is under pressure from investors to step down after the company's recent profit warning, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to people familiar with the matter, Alcatel-Lucent officials have informally approached potential candidates as successors. Some members were disappointed with execution in the third quarter but all expressed support for Verwaayen at the last results announcement, but this could change depending on fourth-quarter performance, to be announced in February 2012. Alcatel-Lucent recorded a EUR 436 million negative free cash flow in the third quarter, but still had EUR 2.96 billion of cash and equivalents at the end of September. The group has shed dozens of product lines, include a recent agreement to sell its call centre branch for USD 1.5 billion. It pushed back its target of achieving positive or break-even free cash flow this year, announced when Verwaayen took over three years ago. Alcatel-Lucent's EMEA president, Stephen Carter, is a potential internal candidate.
