Boston, MA 10/18/2013 (wallstreetpr) – It is a known fact that Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) had appointed Stephen Elop as its Chief Executive Officer in 2010. At that time, company was looking to do two things. First was to arrest the fall in its market share, which was being eaten away by likes of Samsung and Apple. Second was to replicate its competitor Apple’s success as a mobile device maker. And appointment of Stephen Elop was a step in this direction. But what has not been known till date is that Mr. Elop was not Nokia’s first choice for the post.
This startling revelation has been made by company’s former chairman Jorma Ollila. He was the one who was primarily responsible for CEO’s hunt in 2010 and it was after his approval that Elop became company’s CEO. Ollila in his latest book has given indications that while searching for company’s CEO, he had an opportunity to interview five candidates. Out of whom, the one who was originally selected decided to withdraw his candidature because of personal reasons. It was then that Elop was chosen for the post.
Elop has been in midst of controversy for spearheading mobile handset maker’s sale to Microsoft. The deal valued at more than 7 billion dollars is a result of company’s efforts to recover from mounting financial losses and market share erosion. Nokia believes that with Microsoft as its new parent, it might have a chance of fighting against titans like Google, Samsung and Apple. With Nokia in Microsoft’s kitty, Elop is planned to join Microsoft and become the head of company’s device business. Readers should note that it was Elop who was instrumental in bringing the association between Microsoft and Nokia via the Windows 8 platform.
Analysts are still skeptical about company’s takeover by Microsoft as they believe that Microsoft has never been able to successfully acquire hardware businesses. The analyst community is still playing a wait and watch game for the company.
