Jakarta –
Until whenever, Stephen Elop it seems hard to break away from the notion that he is the destroyer of the mobile phone business Nokia. Surprisingly, he got a huge bonus when he sold Nokia cheaply to Microsoft, much to the dismay of the Finnish people. Here’s the story.
As is well known, Stephen Elop was appointed CEO of Nokia in 2010, having previously been an executive at Microsoft. At that time, the Android operating system was on the rise, but Elop did not choose it but used Windows Phone from Microsoft.
“I think Microsoft will wait until Nokia’s stock price drops to buy it,” said one Nokia employee who was interviewed anonymously in 2011.
“This is indeed very suspicious to me. If he wants what is good for the company, why is he trying to destroy it and make the stock price plummet? There are many conspiracy theories that arise here,” said another Nokia employee.
In 2013, Nokia completely collapsed until it was sold for a low price of USD 7.2 billion to Microsoft. Elop is considered by many to be responsible for the collapse of Nokia.
“By various standards of measurement, Elop is one of the worst CEOs or indeed the worst. Elop is the wrong person to lead Nokia. There are other people who should be able to save Nokia’s mobile phone business,” said Pekka Nykänen and Merina Salminen, authors of Operation Elop.
Even stranger, Stephen Elop at that time it actually got a huge bonus when Microsoft was confirmed to buy Nokia. He is entitled to 18 months of salary and incentive bonuses worth USD 5.7 million. He also got a share of shares worth USD 19.7 million. Overall, the fee he received was around USD 25.4 million.
This tantalizing figure caused controversy, especially the angry reaction in Nokia’s home country, Finland. One of them came from the Finnish Economy Minister Jan Vapaavuori. “I find it difficult to understand the benefits of this bonus,” he said at the time.
Elop is considered unworthy of a high bonus from selling Nokia. Even though as is known, Nokia is a company that can be said to be an icon of the Finnish people.
In order to defuse the controversy, Nokia is said to persuade Stephen Elop receive a deducted bonus compensation. But according to the Finnish newspaper Helisingin Sanomat, Elop turned it down because he was in the process of divorcing his wife.
Next page, Stephen Elop’s response>>
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