BT boss may delay departure

After months of sluggish stock price performance at BT, the company's chief executive looks set to delay his departure so that he can steady the ship.

Ben Verwaayen, who has been chief executive of BT for six years, was expected to leave the post later this year. After revenues fell last quarter, however, he may delay his departure until 2009, the Financial Times reported.

The company's faltering status come after many rival telecom companies successfully gate crashed BT's monopoly on UK telephony services, offering so-called 'unbundled' that make partial use of other networks, and which BT much charge lower wholesale rates for handling and providing access to exchanges.

Since BT's interim results were published in November, the company's share price has fallen by 31 per cent. This is hardly a good time for Verwaayen, one of the men who saved BT from a post dot-com £30 billion debt mountain, to leave the company.

In 2001, when BT was faltering under the weight of its debt, Verwaayen along with Sir Christopher Bland successfully turned around the company's finances. Bland stepped down from his role as chairman of BT last September, at a more prosperous time for the company.

No official decisions have been made yet concerning Verwaayen's departure, and it is possible that it could still come this year. However, Verwaayen may face criticism if he were to leave while the company's share price was still depressed.

The current head of BT Retail, Ian Livingston, is the top candidate from within BT to replace Verwaayen, but candidates from outside the company will also be considered.

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