C&W surges on CEO appointment
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Caio, right, and Loosemore
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Struggling Cable & Wireless named Francesco Caio as it new chief executive on Wednesday in an effort to restore investor confidence.
The appointment was well received by the market. Cable & Wireless stock soared 6.3 percent to 75.5 pence in early London trading. Its shares have plunged more than 90 percent since early 2000.
Cable & Wireless had been searching for a new CEO since January, when Graham Wallace said he would leave the company after losing the backing of key institutional investors.
He blew about $5 billion on acquisitions to turn the one-time communications network of the British Empire into a Web hosting company.
But that strategy came unstuck as the Internet bubble burst and the predicted boom for data centers collapsed.
Caio will be paid £700,000 a year, with a maximum annual bonus of 150 percent of salary, Cable & Wireless said.
He is the CEO and founder of European business and Internet service provider Netscalibur and former CEO of Italian mobile phone operator Omnitel.
"Francesco will now apply his industry experience to a rapid and critical examination of our recent thinking so that we can, at the time of our full-year results in June, clarify the way forward for Cable & Wireless,'' said Chairman Richard Lapthorne.
"Cable & Wireless has a great deal to do," Lapthorne said.
Cable & Wireless also said it was hiring Kevin Loosemore, formerly of Motorola and IBM UK, to take the new post of chief operating officer. He will be paid £490,000 pounds and a 100 percent bonus.
