Alcatel-Lucent names new CFO

The latest high-level shake-up comes after former CEO Patricia Russo was ousted in September due to shareholder discontent over repeated losses and the failure of the 2006 merger to live up to expectations.

Alcatel-Lucent said in a statement that Pesquidoux had "decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities."

The company has engaged in successive rounds of restructuring, and the new CEO Ben Verwaayen has said more are to come, with a comprehensive review due by early next month.

Tufano, whose appointment takes effect Dec. 1, should "help us further improving our profitability over the long term," Verwaayen said.

Tufano was CFO and briefly interim CEO at Solectron, an electronics manufacturing company bought by Flextronics last year. He also served as CEO and CFO at Maxtor Corp., a U.S. manufacturer of computer hard disk drives. He has a masters in business administration from Columbia University in New York.

In the third quarter, Alcatel-Lucent's quarterly losses shrank to euro40 million ($51 million), down from euro345 million a year earlier, as earnings were hammered by restructuring charges.