A little over a week ago we reported that outgoing Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is likely to rake in a $25 million payday if shareholders are to approve the sale of Nokia’s phone business to Microsoft. Under the deal, not only will Elop move back to Microsoft, he will also see this incredible surge in his net worth due to accelerated vesting of his outstanding equity awards, a short term cash management bonus and 18 months of his base salary. There’s been some outrage over in Finland over this figure, and apparently Nokia requested Elop to accept a reduced payday. According to the Helsingin Sanomat, Elop has refused to do so.
The Canadian born Elop took the helm at Nokia nearly three years ago. Under his reign, the company adopted Windows Phone as the core platform for its smartphones. It also saw its share price drop by more than a third, while it continued to hemorrhage market share. As per the report, Elop reasons that he can’t accept a reduced payday because of his upcoming divorce. He says that if he accepts less than the $25 million he’s entitled to from Nokia, he won’t be able to convince his wife to make do with a smaller settlement.
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