BT boss moves to French IT firm

French stockbrokers welcomed Danon's move to Capgemini

The chief executive of BT's retail arm Pierre Danon is to become the chief operating officer at French computer consultants Capgemini.

Mr Danon had reportedly fallen out with colleagues over whether BT should invest in costly new infrastructure for local telephone exchanges.

BT in a statement made no mention of the row, saying Mr Danon had helped BT to build an "exciting future".

Mr Danon was appointed to BT's board in 2001.

Row played down

Shares in Capgemini rose 4% in afternoon trading, as reports of Mr Danon's appointment filtered through.

The nomination of Pierre Danon is "good news for Capgemini" as he enjoys a very good reputation at BT, one Paris-based analyst was quoted as saying.

BT's head Ben Verwaayen is reported to have opposed Mr Danon's call for local loop unbundling (LLU) - a process which would mean BT's rivals could have greater access to last-mile connections with households.

But Mr Verwaayen played down debate over whether LLU had been particularly divisive.

"This is an industry-wide debate and in and by itself there's nothing wrong in having a debate," he said.