MILAN (AP)--Telecom Italia Chairman Guido Rossi resigned Friday, just days after the company's largest shareholder moved to oust him from his post.
Olimpia, the holding company set up by Pirelli and the Benetton family to control Telecom Italia, omitted Rossi's name from a list of proposed new board members released this week ahead of a shareholders' vote April 16 - making it difficult, if not impossible, for Rossi to maintain control of the company.
A Telecom Italia statement said the resignation was effective immediately.
The move comes as Olimpia is negotiating to sell two-thirds of its 18% stake to U.S. telecoms giant AT&T and its Mexican affiliate.
Rossi initially signaled he would counter the move to oust him, but he appeared resigned to his fate in an interview with the Rome daily La Repubblica published Friday, saying he didn't plan to show up at the shareholders meeting.
Rossi, a widely respected figure who once ran the stock market regulator and was appointed soccer commissioner to steer the game through last year's scandals, became chairman of Telecom Italia in September after Marco Tronchetti Provera resigned in an open spat with the government over the company's future.
Rossi told La Repubblica that the two came to loggerheads over Rossi's attempts to clear up conflicts of interest in the company.
"We started on a collision course when I tried - for the wellbeing of the company, the market and the country - to address conflicts of interest between Tronchetti and Telecom. I became dangerous for him, and I needed to be eliminated," Rossi was quoted as saying.
Rossi criticized Olimpia for only informing him the night before it made its list public that he wouldn't be included, saying it "lacked style."
Under the Telecom Italia statutes, the majority shareholder - Olimpia - nominates four-fifths of the board, while minority shareholders nominate the remaining fifth.
While Rossi's name was excluded, the names of the current Chief Executive Riccardo Ruggiero and Deputy Chairman Carlo Buora were included on Olimpia's list of 17 names.
Italian media have reported Olimpia will seek to name as chairman Pasquale Pistorio, former head of SGS Group, the only Italian microelectronics company. Pistorio's name also was on the list.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 6th April 2007
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