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Comment by bvi | Hacker News Reader

Given that he has been a Microsoft veteran, it's hardly surprising that (1) he's a big shareholder, and (2) whatever decision he makes as Nokia chief, his position as one of the largest individual shareholders of Microsoft will come into scrutiny.

I think it's naive to say that he chose to go down the Microsoft route because he is one of its largest individual shareholders. It is equally as likely that Elop would have made his decision regardless of his $MSFT stock ownership. A little too much FUD for me in this case.

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Not sure if i would call him a Microsoft veteran. He worked at Microsoft only between 2008-2010[1].

[1] http://www.linkedin.com/pub/stephen-elop/1/3a0/b31

he seems to be nothing more than a hustler, quickly jumping jobs when opportunity presents itself:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2212657

Why all the hate?

/edit: Would you like people to talk about you like this just because you switched jobs after 2 years time?

Would you like people to talk about you like this just because you switched jobs after 2 years time?

if I switched 3 senior executive jobs in 4 years and then went on to become CEO one of the most known companies in the world today, then yes, absolutely.

Oh come on, no sane person is arguing that Elop went the Microsoft route _because_ he's a big shareholder. The reason people bring up the issue of the stock he owns is to point out that not only his decisions at Nokia are mostly consequence free for him personally, but he also stands to benefit handsomely form this decision that many argue is very bad for Nokia and very good for Microsoft.

The scrutiny in this case comes directly from the fact that Elop's actions at Nokia are very much Microsoft centric, and arguably Microsoft serving.

There is absolutely no way he could have made such a move without the board's blessing; perhaps it was even their expectation that bringing him in would improve a deal they wanted to make with MS. I don't understand at all why you'd hint that this is "Microsoft serving" when it is clearly the will of the board of directors that this happen for Nokia.

"He stands to benefit handsomely"

No he doesn't. WP7, even under the best case circumstances, will have limited impact on Microsoft stock. People with tens of millions of dollars are connected to far better investment opportunities than making a stock bump up in value a few percentage points.

Or maybe he is chosen as CEO because he is of microsoft's largest individual shareholders. Either way, it was a stupid move by Nokia.

It's still something that has to be cleared by Nokia's board. He can't make a unilateral decision like this and have everyone go along for the ride.

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