BT chief hangs up after brawl

Retail chief hangs up after BT brawl

Frank Kane
Sunday October 31, 2004
The Observer

What is going on at BT? An impeccable source
told me there was blood on the walls at a board
meeting last week: chairman Sir Christopher
Bland and chief executive Ben Verwaayen had a
toe-to-toe with Pierre Danon, head of the retail
business, who was backed by finance director
Ian Livingston.

The outcome, according to my source, was that
Danon quit, and Livingstone was placated only
by being offered the specially created post of
deputy chief executive. The cause of the fall-
out was deep-seated disagreement about the
funding of BT's ailing land-lines network,
which is up against stiff competition on all sides.

Danon had asked for more cash to rebuild the
network, but Verwaayen had put his foot down.
Danon, apparently, had walked out, with the
(implicit or explicit) threat to quit.

Verwaayen calls the Observer : 'This is a very
legitimate discussion ... I have to be profitable
and compete, and I need the necessary cost-base
.... We have to justify the investment ...
Nobody has resigned ... Nobody has come to my
office and said he is going to resign ... As
far as I know he's not resigning.'

Well, that sounded pretty conclusive. Even our
own 'deep throat' might sometimes get it wrong,
though it has not happened yet.

But then a BT spokesman calls back: 'If you're
writing anything about anything Pierre is
considering, you might like to talk to him.'
Well, indeed we would. 'But you can't. He's
on a plane to Mauritius,' says a spokesman flatly.

What better place to consider your future than
from the fringes of a coral island way out in the
Indian Ocean? But when you have made up your mind,
Pierre, let somebody know: the chairman, the Stock
Exchange, the shareholders - anyone.


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/busin...339978,00.html