“Nokia shareholders have approved a deal allowing Microsoft to purchase the Finnish smartphone maker’s Devices and Services unit,” Tom Warren reports for The Verge. “Of the shareholders surveyed, 99.7 percent who participated in the vote agreed with the Microsoft sale, representing around four-fifths of Nokia’s shares, according to the Financial Times.”
“Some shareholders were understandably upset over the sale of a Finnish national icon, but that hasn’t stopped the majority from approving a deal worth around $7.2 billion,” Warren reports. “The acquisition will see former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop return to Microsoft early next year to run an expanded devices and services team at the software giant.”
“All eyes now turn to Stephen Elop. The former Nokia CEO is reportedly part of the future Microsoft CEO shortlist, alongside Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Microsoft cloud boss Satya Nadella, and former Skype president Tony Bates,” Warren reports. “While recent reports suggest Elop is open to selling Microsoft’s Xbox business and killing off Bing, current CEO Steve Ballmer is putting in place a structure and changes that could be difficult for Elop or any successor to undo immediately.
Warren reports, “Elop is rejoining Microsoft either way, but the next few months will reveal more about his exact role at the software maker.”
Read more in the full article here.
Oh my, what a picture MDN. Elop is definitely the right man to replace Ballmer.
Is it me or does Ballmer look like he’s missing some teeth?
He looks like a thumb. Take a pen, and draw a face on your thumb with some hair on the left and right side and see for yourself.
You know, Ballmer does look like a thumb. The only thing is when I raise my thumb up to compare with the picture, his ears make it look like I have warts on my thumb.
Tweedledee and Tweedledumber.
This was the plan all along. Elop was sent by Microsoft to drive Nokia into the ground, so MS could buy it up for cheap.
Now their failure is complete.
Dumb & Dumber
I want to see Alan Mulally as CEO of MSFT. Any CEO of an automobile manufacturer that would corroborate with MSFT to put SYNC in their cars (did I spell that right, or is it SINK?) would make a fine CEO of Microsoft. Mind you, I’ve never subjected myself to a Ford car, or SYNC software, but I gather from things I’ve read that it isn’t pretty. But they’ve been working on it since 2007. Talk about treading water.
My working book title is “Nokia: from Finnish to finished”.
Yeeeesssssss. My plan is working superbly…
Oddjob, fetch me some more cognac. This is going to be very entertaining.
Yeah, Steve really need to remember to put on his dentures before photo ops.