While speaking at the Mobile World Conference today Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was forced to defend himself against a rather pointed cat-caller who had asked him, via some post press conference yelling, “Are you a Trojan Horse?”
Whatever did this person mean, you ask? Well, it’s really quite simple: Elop left Microsoft in October to join Nokia. Nokia, as you’re recall, just got real cozy with Microsoft this week, stating in a joint announcement that the two companies would collaborate to get Windows Phone 7 on Nokia hardware. The move sent a thousand Nokia employees into the streets to protest the move, which would see their company abandoning the decade-old Symbian mobile OS, and had Elop responding like this to his MWC questioner:
The obvious answer is no. 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.
That was not all, however. Elop also answered a question regarding his Microsoft shares. He told the audience that he sold them as soon as the law allowed following his transition, but was forced to cease sales once the Microsoft-Nokia deal went public, as was also required by law. Seems like quite a tightrope to walk!
Furthermore, Elop denied being the seventh-largest Microsoft shareholder, and reiterated that the decision to partner with Microsoft—like all major decisions regarding Nokia’s future—was reached by the enture board of directors. [Business Insider]