Home › News › Industry News
Nokia CEO: Microsoft to pay us billions, I am not a Trojan Horse
"For all the unique elements that Nokia is contributing, including the swing factor, including the decision to make Windows Phone a challenger, Microsoft is contributing to Nokia substantial monetary value towards Nokia, because we are contributing all of these unique things," Elop said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. "During our investor briefing there was a slide where we had a single line with little green checkmarks saying 'marketing and other investments' from Microsoft to Nokia. I think some people interpreted that as something that would be measured in the millions or the tens of millions, as most marketing transfers of value are. In fact, when you look at all of the value that we are contributing, and the unique nature of what we bring to the table as part of this transaction, the value transferred to Nokia is measured in the Bs, not the Ms."
At the Barcelona event, Elop was also asked whether he was a "Trojan horse." Given that Elop worked for Microsoft from January 2008 to September 2010 as the head of the software giant's Business Division, the obvious implication is that Microsoft planted him at Nokia so as to steer the company in a direction favorable to the software giant. Nokia even recently appointed Chris Weber, former Corporate Vice President leading Microsoft's US Enterprise and Partner Group, as President of Nokia (US) and Head of Markets in North America.
Of course, Elop denied the insinuation. "The obvious answer is no," he said. "We made sure that the entire management team was involved in the process, and of course the board of directors of Nokia are the only ones that can make this significant of a decision about Nokia. They made that final decision on Thursday night."
Elop also answered confirmed the he had Microsoft shares, saying that he stopped selling his shares prior to the announcement of the deal last week, as required by law. "About me being the seventh largest shareholder in Microsoft: that is not true," he said. "That would be a substantial amount of money that I don't have. When I moved from Microsoft to Nokia, I was legally prohibited from selling my shares. As soon as that lifted, I began selling. But when our discussions began, I had to stop selling again; the laws are very clear. As soon as the legal restrictions lift, of course I'll sell those shares." Elop holds about 130,000 shares worth around $3.18 million.
Nokia fans should not see this as some sort of treachery. How Elop got his position doesn't really matter: the fact is all of Nokia's management unanimously chose Windows Phone. What we can say, however, is that because Elop has such a close relationship with Microsoft, he will work twice as hard to make sure the deal leads to fruition.
Related Stories
User Comments (12)
Post a comment|
Archean
on February 14, 2011 11:50 AM |
I am not sure what all the fuzz is about frankly. Business make decision based upon their own priorities; and one major factor in such cases is will it make them stand out in crowed, i.e. give them some sort of differentiation or advantage. Hence, jumping on the Android bandwagon would not have given them this, it would have only meant one thing and that is they would have been another company in the crowed of so many; whereas, if MS really delivers on WP7's promising foundation and keep improving it, and is giving some preferential treatment to Nokia, they will only need to ensure that they are delivering a solid hardware platform and OS integration to go with it. |
|
mattfrompa
on February 14, 2011 12:00 PM |
Microsoft:if you can't be better, just be everywhere. |
|
princeton
on February 14, 2011 12:15 PM |
The article says he moved from Microsoft from Nokia. I believe it should read from Microsoft to Nokia. |
|
Guest
on February 14, 2011 12:16 PM |
Jumping on the Android bandwagon would have only allowed to sell lots of phones. Why would they want to do that when they can be distinguished? Good luck with Microsoft, hopefully you will be wearing your pants around you waist, not your ankles. |
|
Archean
on February 14, 2011 12:20 PM |
Hey Princeton, hope all is well at your end. I just dumped the default launcher on SGS, and switched to Go Launcher EX, and interestingly for the last (almost) 24 hours I haven't experienced any crash or slow downs ....... |
|
Guest
on February 14, 2011 2:40 PM |
imagine WebOS on Nokia phone if they would have bought the Palm ... |
|
Guest
on February 14, 2011 5:10 PM |
Who cares? Nokias' day has come and gone. |
|
Guest
on February 14, 2011 7:36 PM |
I bet the billions he's referring to are from discounts on MS royalties. |
|
Burty117
on February 15, 2011 8:50 AM |
I think this is a good move from Nokia, Nokia easily makes some of the best hardware in the smartphone market, now they will have a software partner to go with it and make their phones truely unique and all the while WP7 will become rather popular. |
|
Guest
on February 15, 2011 2:05 PM |
Previously, Nokia said the deal was worth "Billions" because they would be saving that much in R&D and marketing. This looks like a carefully re-worded statement to make people think Microsoft will be writing Nokia a check. |
|
Guest
on March 16, 2011 5:25 AM |
Tina well said I think its a great deal hoping these two giants would come up with something great.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfWFvCJJaNs |
|
Lokalaskurar
on March 16, 2011 5:35 AM |
Guest said: Who cares? Nokias' day has come and gone. Dude, Nokia is freaking huge in some parts of the world. And I think that is what Microsoft really aims at: being everywhere, or at least being very big. By cooperating with Nokia, Microsoft can insure a bigger "existence" on the market. Considering the amounts of Nokia cellular phones being manufactured and sold each day, I think Microsoft has gone and made themselves a pretty neat deal. |
Most Popular
| Trending | Featured |
-
iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak tool released, supports 4S, iPad 3
-
After five days, Facebook ranks as worst IPO flop of the decade
-
Rumor: Windows 8 RC will launch June 1, will ship with Adobe Flash
-
Rumor: AMD "Piledriver" FX CPU production to begin Q3 2012
-
Is Apple's USB wall adapter really worth $29?
Editors' Laptop Picks
Subscribe to TechSpot
Get free exclusive content, learn about new features and tech breaking news.
