Sales and the stock price at Alcatel-Lucent SA have been going down, and shareholders are losing patience with the Paris-based telecommunications equipment giant.
Shares closed Friday at $1.59 on the New York Stock Exchange; the stock price doesn't remotely resemble a 52-week high of $6.05 reached on July 7, 2011. First-quarter revenues posted in April fell 12.3 percent over the prior-year period, due partly to service providers tightening their spending with the company, and Alcatel-Lucent acknowledged that an unfavorable revenue mix and a lower volume was hurting its gross margin.
During an annual meeting Friday, shareholders peppered Alcatel-Lucent with a number of questions related to its performance and showed their impatience when its CFO gave a presentation, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
"I don't put any trust in the directors," the Journal quoted one shareholder as saying during a question-and-answer period.
Alcatel-Lucent's board members, including Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen, can only hope that shareholder is in the minority.
