Until whenever, Stephen Elop seems difficult to escape from the notion that he is the destroyer of Nokia's mobile phone business. 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 cheap $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 more strange, Stephen Elop at that time 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.
To defuse the controversy, Nokia is said to have persuaded Stephen Elop to accept a reduced bonus compensation. But according to the Finnish newspaper Helisingin Sanomat, Elop turned it down because he was in the process of divorcing his wife.
The reason is, based on the rules of law in Finland, Elop's wife is entitled to receive half of the compensation worth USD 25 million that Nokia gave him.
Then it was revealed that Microsoft paid 70% of Elop's fees, the rest was borne by Nokia. In addition, Elop did not lose his job. He was immediately asked to head the division of Nokia phones that are part of Microsoft.
In 2015, Elop was also laid off when Nokia's mobile phone business failed and Microsoft discontinued it. He himself had denied being a Trojan horse sent by Microsoft to destroy Nokia.
"We can't see how Symbian can be brought to a competitive level against for example the iPhone, which was launched three years earlier," said Elop defending his decision to eliminate Symbian and adopt Windows Phone.
"As for the Trojan horse issue, I really only work for the benefit of Nokia's shareholders. In addition, all fundamental business and strategic decisions are made with the support and approval of Nokia's board of directors," he added.