Tekelec has promoted a former Lucent Technologies executive as its new CEO.

Ron de Lange joined the Morrisville-based telecommunications technology company in 2005 and has been "the primary architect of the company's product strategy." He replaces interim CEO Krish Prabhu, who took the job in January after Frank Plastina abruptly resigned after 5 years as CEO.

De Lange, 52, takes over as Tekelec goes through a key transition. The company, which makes software and other technology used by mobile-phone carriers, has seen sales slow and is shifting its focus to the next generation of wireless networks that carry more data and video.

Alcatel-Lucent, down for the knockout punch, is back up and pounding the competition.

The experts had written off the router and networking company as a goner, but the technology company is now one of Wall Street's top performers in the telecom networking area.

According to a glowing article in Bloomberg Businessweek, Alcatel-Lucent is a remarkable turnaround story, gaining strength in the router market as well as in the emerging field of ultra-fast 4G networks. And its stock value is up 117 percent this year.

The recovery hasn't come without a heavy price at Alcatel-Lucent's Raleigh operations, where the employee rolls are just a fraction of the company's former workforce.

"After a decade of losses, downsizing, and one very large, messy merger -- Alcatel-Lucent has become one of the most startling turnarounds in tech," the magazine says.

Communications gear maker Alcatel-Lucent laid off about 40 engineers and other workers at the company's Raleigh office Thursday.

The staff reductions, affecting about 12 percent of Alcatel-Lucent's workers in Raleigh, are part of a company-wide cost-cutting plan announced in December.

The company's facility on Sugar Bush Road is left with about 290 workers, said spokeswoman Denise Panyik-Dale.