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To me, this is borderline criminal behaviour and shows once more that Microsoft is incapable of playing fair. Installing a trojan horse as Nokias CEO, who then

To me, this is borderline criminal behaviour and shows once more that Microsoft is incapable of playing fair. Installing a trojan horse as Nokias CEO, who then proceeds to destroy any value left in that company so that Microsoft can pick it up for a cheap price. I'd be amazed if Elop is promoted to MS's CEO position for such deceitful behaviour

itry 13y ago
Interesting theory. Might indeed have been a plan. Microsoft was afraid that no hw manufacturer needed their os anymore. So they decided to build their own hardware. Fast way: Buy an exisiting Phone manufacturer.
general_failure 13y ago
I don't think elop was a Trojan horse, I don't think any of this was preplanned. But I do think elop is a weasel and a scum and it would be seriously disgusting to have him as Microsoft CEO. He did a gross disservice to nokia and nobody I know has any iota of respect for him. He has no leadership qualities whatsoever. In fact, he is what you call a corporate whore. He pleases others and wins favors. Like now he has done ms a favor and they will make him CEO.
- yulaow 13y ago
  I would prefer to say that the Board of nokia is gone full retard hiring him as ceo. OR they knew since the start that M$ was gonna buying them.
buster 13y ago
I think the exact same thing... - get ex MS employee to be Nokia CEO - fire lots of Nokia employees - run the company down - buy Nokia, hire ex MS employee to run that part It's a shame, i never had a Nokia, but the featurephones atleast have been decent hardware and quality. They haven't been marketleader for nothing.. Oh, and by the way, the next step will be: - buy all Nokia patents (if they haven't as well) - sue rest of the market Nokia must be sitting on a huge pile of relevant mobile and networking patents (although the networking stuff may stay with NSN).
- markdown 13y ago
  This deal includes a purchase of Nokia's handset division, and a licensing of a lot of their patents.
- mcintyre1994 13y ago
  If you believe this was a conspiracy, you might be inclined to believe Microsoft will have influence over the remains of Nokia too. If that is the case, it's better to have Nokia sue the market over them patents, much less space to be attacked back without a devices division.
- zem 13y ago
  their dumbphones were superb too. the nokia 1100 is probably the most usable phone i've ever had, in terms of being a phone (voice calls and sms). comfortable to hold, comfortable buttons, nigh indestructible, and an insanely long battery life.
hannibal5 13y ago
MS is known for it's ruthless business tactics. Nokia joins the long list of MS partners who got hosed. It's impossible to say how well planned this whole thing was, or if there was any gaps. But it's certainly possible. 1. Elop is the new rising star in MS. 2. Big American shareholders (who own more MS stock than Nokia) force Ollila to pick guy from America. 3. Elop commits to MS software almost instantly. 4. Widely criticized "burning platform" speech kills the revenue making phone business almost overnight. Nokia must commit to MS and it can't look sideways. 3. Elop's family has been living in Redmond all these years. They did not move as Elop initially said. 4. Ballmer announces retirement just before Nokia deal. 5. Nokia sells cheap just when sales show small hope.
- brador 13y ago
  How does 4. ballmer retirement play into things?
  - crocowhile 13y ago
    6. Elop becomes new MS CEO
    - brador 13y ago
      Could it have been 'we need a new ceo, hey that guy from Nokia looks like a good candidate, buy nokia, get Elop, make Elop ceo' without the conspiracy?
      - crocowhile 13y ago
        Elop used to work at MS before going to Nokia.
        chris_wot 13y ago
        It's looking more and more like a blatant take over from within via Elop as a Microsoft puppet. Now Elop has a high chance of becoming CEO of Microsoft. Either way, it's not looking good for either Microsoft or Nokia. Those massive mega mergers rarely go well, for one party or the other. I suspect that the name Nokia will be no longer in 2 years time.
malaporte 13y ago
Maybe that was the outcome Nokia's board looked for from the start? I mean, they did choose Elop, and it was pretty clear where that would lead them. Nokia was on a downhill slope way before Elop came onboard.
- shrikant 13y ago
  There were acquisition talks in June 2013 which fell through because the price wasn't right. Elop just had to bide his time. http://www.tech-thoughts.net/2013/06/failed-microsoft-nokia-deal-strategic-missteps.html http://www.tech-thoughts.net/2013/06/failed-microsoft-nokia-...
nextw33k 13y ago
The problem is that you could never prove it in a court of law.
- chris_wot 13y ago
  It's not illegal, unless strong arm tactics were used to force the board into it against their will.
  - OGC 13y ago
    strong arm tactics probably weren't necessary, money was probably good enough.
x0x0 13y ago
I dunno about criminal, and nokia seems like an incompetent company (the smartphone market was theirs to lose and lose it they did), but I have to stand amazed at a couple players. Elop is returning to microsoft and Mark Penn, strategist from the hillary clinton presidential campaign, will be running marketing. Those two sure have the gift of failing up.
anuragramdasan 13y ago
Its as if Ballmer wants to screw things up as much as he can before he leaves. While the behaviour, as you mentioned, is borderline criminal, this only means Microsoft wasting ridiculous amounts of money and time into a mobile platform that not many care for.
chollida1 13y ago
> To me, this is borderline criminal behaviour and shows once more that Microsoft is incapable of playing fair. This is a perfect example of a comment that has no business on hacker news. > Installing a trojan horse as Nokias CEO, who then proceeds to destroy any value left in that company so that Microsoft can pick it up for a cheap price You do realize that Microsoft doesn't get to appoint the CEO of other companies right? Nokia picked Elop on their own. There was buzz at the time about how they had "stolen" him away from Microsoft.

itry 13y ago

Interesting theory. Might indeed have been a plan. Microsoft was afraid that no hw manufacturer needed their os anymore. So they decided to build their own hardware. Fast way: Buy an exisiting Phone manufacturer.

general_failure 13y ago

I don't think elop was a Trojan horse, I don't think any of this was preplanned. But I do think elop is a weasel and a scum and it would be seriously disgusting to have him as Microsoft CEO. He did a gross disservice to nokia and nobody I know has any iota of respect for him. He has no leadership qualities whatsoever. In fact, he is what you call a corporate whore. He pleases others and wins favors. Like now he has done ms a favor and they will make him CEO.

yulaow 13y ago
I would prefer to say that the Board of nokia is gone full retard hiring him as ceo. OR they knew since the start that M$ was gonna buying them.

buster 13y ago

I think the exact same thing... - get ex MS employee to be Nokia CEO - fire lots of Nokia employees - run the company down - buy Nokia, hire ex MS employee to run that part It's a shame, i never had a Nokia, but the featurephones atleast have been decent hardware and quality. They haven't been marketleader for nothing.. Oh, and by the way, the next step will be: - buy all Nokia patents (if they haven't as well) - sue rest of the market Nokia must be sitting on a huge pile of relevant mobile and networking patents (although the networking stuff may stay with NSN).

markdown 13y ago
This deal includes a purchase of Nokia's handset division, and a licensing of a lot of their patents.
mcintyre1994 13y ago
If you believe this was a conspiracy, you might be inclined to believe Microsoft will have influence over the remains of Nokia too. If that is the case, it's better to have Nokia sue the market over them patents, much less space to be attacked back without a devices division.
zem 13y ago
their dumbphones were superb too. the nokia 1100 is probably the most usable phone i've ever had, in terms of being a phone (voice calls and sms). comfortable to hold, comfortable buttons, nigh indestructible, and an insanely long battery life.

hannibal5 13y ago

MS is known for it's ruthless business tactics. Nokia joins the long list of MS partners who got hosed. It's impossible to say how well planned this whole thing was, or if there was any gaps. But it's certainly possible. 1. Elop is the new rising star in MS. 2. Big American shareholders (who own more MS stock than Nokia) force Ollila to pick guy from America. 3. Elop commits to MS software almost instantly. 4. Widely criticized "burning platform" speech kills the revenue making phone business almost overnight. Nokia must commit to MS and it can't look sideways. 3. Elop's family has been living in Redmond all these years. They did not move as Elop initially said. 4. Ballmer announces retirement just before Nokia deal. 5. Nokia sells cheap just when sales show small hope.

brador 13y ago
How does 4. ballmer retirement play into things?
- crocowhile 13y ago
  6. Elop becomes new MS CEO
  - brador 13y ago
    Could it have been 'we need a new ceo, hey that guy from Nokia looks like a good candidate, buy nokia, get Elop, make Elop ceo' without the conspiracy?
    - crocowhile 13y ago
      Elop used to work at MS before going to Nokia.
      - chris_wot 13y ago
        It's looking more and more like a blatant take over from within via Elop as a Microsoft puppet. Now Elop has a high chance of becoming CEO of Microsoft. Either way, it's not looking good for either Microsoft or Nokia. Those massive mega mergers rarely go well, for one party or the other. I suspect that the name Nokia will be no longer in 2 years time.

malaporte 13y ago

Maybe that was the outcome Nokia's board looked for from the start? I mean, they did choose Elop, and it was pretty clear where that would lead them. Nokia was on a downhill slope way before Elop came onboard.

shrikant 13y ago
There were acquisition talks in June 2013 which fell through because the price wasn't right. Elop just had to bide his time. http://www.tech-thoughts.net/2013/06/failed-microsoft-nokia-deal-strategic-missteps.html http://www.tech-thoughts.net/2013/06/failed-microsoft-nokia-...

nextw33k 13y ago

The problem is that you could never prove it in a court of law.

chris_wot 13y ago
It's not illegal, unless strong arm tactics were used to force the board into it against their will.
- OGC 13y ago
  strong arm tactics probably weren't necessary, money was probably good enough.

x0x0 13y ago

I dunno about criminal, and nokia seems like an incompetent company (the smartphone market was theirs to lose and lose it they did), but I have to stand amazed at a couple players. Elop is returning to microsoft and Mark Penn, strategist from the hillary clinton presidential campaign, will be running marketing. Those two sure have the gift of failing up.

anuragramdasan 13y ago

Its as if Ballmer wants to screw things up as much as he can before he leaves. While the behaviour, as you mentioned, is borderline criminal, this only means Microsoft wasting ridiculous amounts of money and time into a mobile platform that not many care for.

chollida1 13y ago

> To me, this is borderline criminal behaviour and shows once more that Microsoft is incapable of playing fair. This is a perfect example of a comment that has no business on hacker news. > Installing a trojan horse as Nokias CEO, who then proceeds to destroy any value left in that company so that Microsoft can pick it up for a cheap price You do realize that Microsoft doesn't get to appoint the CEO of other companies right? Nokia picked Elop on their own. There was buzz at the time about how they had "stolen" him away from Microsoft.