diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5eb82ae0..89f45f79 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ find_package(Threads REQUIRED)
 
 if(BUILD_FAIRMQ)
   find_package2(PUBLIC Boost VERSION 1.64 REQUIRED
-    COMPONENTS container program_options thread system filesystem regex date_time signals
+    COMPONENTS container program_options thread system filesystem regex date_time
   )
   find_package2(PUBLIC FairLogger VERSION 1.2.0 REQUIRED)
   find_package2(PRIVATE ZeroMQ VERSION 4.1.5 REQUIRED)
diff --git a/fairmq/CMakeLists.txt b/fairmq/CMakeLists.txt
index 7728f8fe..7368a557 100644
--- a/fairmq/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/fairmq/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -248,7 +248,6 @@ target_link_libraries(${_target}
   Boost::filesystem
   Boost::regex
   Boost::date_time
-  Boost::signals
   FairLogger::FairLogger
 
   PRIVATE # only libFairMQ links against private dependencies