Communications services specialist Equant said Daniel Caclin has resigned as CEO and director after four years with the company. The news was announced in a short statement just before the Christmas holiday.

The company's special nominating committee has tapped Charles Dehelly, an executive with the French electronics company Thompson, to take over the top job. Dehelly's resume also includes a stint at the computer company Bull.

Equant shareholders are expected to vote on the appointment next month.

"Daniel has completed [his] mission of integration of Equant business structures and helped build the company's value added services portfolio," Barbara Dalibard, chair of the supervisory board, said in a statement.

Equant provides services including connectivity, managed wide area and local area networks and Virtual Private Networks for multinational companies including drug maker Merck. During its third quarter financial report, Equant said it was seeing intense pricing pressure from competitors.

The firm is a subsidiary of France Telecom, which is making its own moves during the last weeks of 2004. Yesterday it signed a multi-year contract naming Level 3 Communications as its prime provider of broadband transport and co-location services in North America.