When Nokia’s newish CEO Stephen Elop came over from Microsoft a few months ago, he brought with him more than fresh ideas about how Nokia is a burning platform. He also brought 200,000 shares of his old company for a ride – the vast majority of which he still owns.
Why is that significant? Because Nokia and Microsoft were competitors, certainly, but more so because they’re currently comrades. But what seems like a glaring conflict of interest may not actually as a big a deal as it first seems.
According to Nokia, while Elop was able to sell of approximately an eighth of his Microsoft stake, to have jettisoned more so quickly would have put him in possible violation of insider trading laws, since the two companies were in active negotiations. And Elop does have an option to acquire up to 500,000 shares in Nokia, although there’s no word on when – or if – he might choose to do so. Given how far Nokia’s stock has dropped on the news of Elop’s Microsoft investment, though, now might not be a bad time for him to buy in. [Monsters and Critics, Sarah Ohrvall]