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Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

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Re: Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

#51

Post by encoderer »

ahrens wrote: post #3

That is just f*cked up but hardly surprising. How can anybody be elected CEO when it's pretty clear he will see to his own interests rather than the companys interests?

His interests ARE aligned with Nokia. Like every CEO everywhere, a big chunk of his comp package is bonus and stock options.

Much ado has been made about him having $0 Nokia stock. This just means that he hasn't executed any of his Nokia options yet, and hasn't been awarded any stock as part of his bonus yet. Neither is suprising: He hasn't been with Nokia for a year yet and he certainly has a vesting schedule.

Re: Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

#52

Post by thorax »

lurch_mojoff wrote: post #46
bvi wrote: post #8

Given that he has been a Microsoft veteran, it's hardly surprising that (1) he's a big shareholder, and (2) whatever decision he makes as Nokia chief, his position as one of the largest individual shareholders of Microsoft will come into scrutiny. I think it's naive to say that he chose to go down the Microsoft route because he is one of its largest individual shareholders. It is equally as likely that Elop would hav…

Oh come on, no sane person is arguing that Elop went the Microsoft route _because_ he's a big shareholder. The reason people bring up the issue of the stock he owns is to point out that not only his decisions at Nokia are mostly consequence free for him personally, but he also stands to benefit handsomely form this decision that many argue is very bad for Nokia and very good for Microsoft. The scrutiny in this case c…

There is absolutely no way he could have made such a move without the board's blessing; perhaps it was even their expectation that bringing him in would improve a deal they wanted to make with MS. I don't understand at all why you'd hint that this is "Microsoft serving" when it is clearly the will of the board of directors that this happen for Nokia.

Re: Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

#53

Post by kenjackson »

There's no conspiracy here. Elop has been liquidating as quickly as possible.

See: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/02/nokia_elop_buying_shares_...

Which includes:

Tallqvist told YLE that Elop will divest all of his Microsoft shares as soon as security exchange regulations and Nokia's own internal directives allow. Elop intends to purchase Nokia shares as soon as it is legally possible.

As an executive at MS who announced his role at Nokia while at MS, it was all but impossible to liquidate quickly, given all the disclosure that needs to happen to avoid insider trading issues.

There's no conspiracy or conflict of interest since all of his MS shares will be gone before any actual work product from the alliance has occurred.

Re: Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

#54

Post by borism »

mryall wrote: post #33
ahrens wrote: post #3

That is just f*cked up but hardly surprising. How can anybody be elected CEO when it's pretty clear he will see to his own interests rather than the companys interests?

CEOs aren't "elected", they're appointed by the board of directors. Elop's background and shareholdings would be well understood by Nokia's board.

appointed by the board of directors

trough the process known as "election"

Elop's background and shareholdings would be well understood by Nokia's board.

very optimistic statement

Re: Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

#55

Post by portman »

powertower wrote: post #35

So now Nokia's decision to replace Symbian has nothing to do with a careful analysis of the situation, but everything to do with keeping $3 million dollars worth of Microsoft stock on the up for 1 man? I have not seen 1 insightful post since this FUD has been spreading. It's amazing how much petty hatred is out there towards Microsoft... I don't even think this has anything to do with Microsoft itself, but rather wit…

And by the way, the ownership table that is linked to isn't even CORRECT. Not even remotely.

Sinofsky isn't listed, and just 2 weeks ago he reported 737,000 shares, which would make him #4 on that list. [1]

Ray Ozzie has just under 1 million shares, and again he's not listed. [2]

The way you assemble these kinds of tables is by mining the SEC filing Form 4, "Statement of Changes in Beneficial Ownership of Securities". But you have to include every Form 4 for your data to be at all accurate.

So already we can see that Elop is #9, and that's just by me guessing two people who seemed conspicuously absent. There could be dozens of others. And don't forget that non-executives don't have to report their shares. I would bet a few grands that there are senior developers who have been working at Microsoft for 15 or 20 years who own more than $3M in stock.

In fact, I just cast my first ever "flag" vote on HN. (With gusto, I might add.) This doesn't deserve the #1 slot.

[1] http://google.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?...

[2] http://biz.yahoo.com/t/12/7827.html

Re: Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

#57

Post by borism »

middus wrote: post #48
borism wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

he seems to be nothing more than a hustler, quickly jumping jobs when opportunity presents itself: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2212657

Why all the hate? /edit: Would you like people to talk about you like this just because you switched jobs after 2 years time?

Would you like people to talk about you like this just because you switched jobs after 2 years time?

if I switched 3 senior executive jobs in 4 years and then went on to become CEO one of the most known companies in the world today, then yes, absolutely.

Re: Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

#58

Post by saturdaysaint »

lurch_mojoff wrote: post #46
bvi wrote: post #8

Given that he has been a Microsoft veteran, it's hardly surprising that (1) he's a big shareholder, and (2) whatever decision he makes as Nokia chief, his position as one of the largest individual shareholders of Microsoft will come into scrutiny. I think it's naive to say that he chose to go down the Microsoft route because he is one of its largest individual shareholders. It is equally as likely that Elop would hav…

Oh come on, no sane person is arguing that Elop went the Microsoft route _because_ he's a big shareholder. The reason people bring up the issue of the stock he owns is to point out that not only his decisions at Nokia are mostly consequence free for him personally, but he also stands to benefit handsomely form this decision that many argue is very bad for Nokia and very good for Microsoft. The scrutiny in this case c…

"He stands to benefit handsomely"

No he doesn't. WP7, even under the best case circumstances, will have limited impact on Microsoft stock. People with tens of millions of dollars are connected to far better investment opportunities than making a stock bump up in value a few percentage points.

Re: Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

#59

Post by siika2000 »

saturdaysaint wrote: post #11

Do we really need a deep conspiracy theory angle to explain the deprecation of a horribly lagging OS (Symbian) and a next-gen OS whose development was severely lagging even behind WP7? The board brought on Elop to do precisely what he did - any ire should be directed squarely at them. Say what you will about RIMM, at least they aren't striking at the prospect of QNX replacing their OS.

There's no need for conspiracy theories, but this is something that should not be overlooked either. Elop's decisions influence two very large companies and their shareholders, and one small to medium sized country and its taxpayers. One thing is to make sure that his actions are legal (which they appear to be, unsurprisingly), and other is to understand the context and biases he is operating with.

Re: Stephen Elop is the 7th biggest individual shareholder of Microsoft

#60

Post by [deleted] »

kenjackson wrote: post #53

There's no conspiracy here. Elop has been liquidating as quickly as possible. See: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/02/nokia_elop_buying_shares_... Which includes: Tallqvist told YLE that Elop will divest all of his Microsoft shares as soon as security exchange regulations and Nokia's own internal directives allow. Elop intends to purchase Nokia shares as soon as it is legally possible. As an executive at MS who annou…

[deleted]
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