Tag Archives: StephenElop

Ballmer confirms what we all knew: Elop candidate for Microsoft CEO job

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File this one in the "Well, yeah," department. Stephen Elop may have stepped down from his CEO gig at Nokia, but Microsoft's former head of its Business Division may still harbor C-level dreams. In an interview with The Seattle Times, Redmond's soon-to-be-former CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed that Elop is in the running for his gig, stating, "Stephen will go from external [candidate] to internal." So the personable mobile exec will be keeping his name badge either way -- time will tell, of course, which washroom he ultimately gets the key for.

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Via: Windows Phone Central

Source: Seattle Times

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop stepping down ahead of transition to Microsoft

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Nokia's Stephen Elop at Mobile World Congress 2013

Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's Devices & Services business has more implications for Nokia than you might suspect at first glance. In the wake of the deal, CEO Stephen Elop is stepping down to become the Executive VP of Devices & Services, and should join Microsoft once the acquisition closes. The shift in rank should minimize any perceived conflict of interest during Elop's transition, Nokia says. Chairman of the Board Risto Siilasmaa will assume an interim CEO position while the company looks for a permanent replacement for Elop. Meanwhile, key Nokia executives Jo Harlow, Chris Weber, Juha Putkiranta and Timo Toikkanen are also expected to follow Elop to Microsoft; Executive VP of Design Marko Ahtisaari plans to step down on November 1st, and will leave the company on November 30th to once more become an entrepreneur. All told, Microsoft is getting several of the cellphone industry's better-known leaders in one shot -- and Nokia's remaining leadership will be mostly unrecognizable to long-term fans.

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Source: Nokia

Microsoft to acquire Nokia’s devices & services business for around $5 billion (Update: due early 2014)

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Whoa. Big news from the middle of the night. According to Nokia, Microsoft will purchase "substantially" all of Nokia's device and service arms as well as licensing the phone maker's patents and mapping know-how. The Redmond company will pay Nokia a cool 3.79 billion euros ($4.99 billion) for the business, and 1.65 billion euros ($2.18 billion) for its patent armory.

Microsoft hopes that allying with its biggest Windows Phone manufacturer will speed up growth (and improve its smartphone market share) -- the company is already promising "increased synergies." CEO Steve Ballmer added: "It's a bold step into the future - a win-win for employees, shareholders and consumers of both companies. Bringing these great teams together will accelerate Microsoft's share and profits in phones, and strengthen the overall opportunities for both Microsoft and our partners across our entire family of devices and services."

According to the companies' press releases, 32,000 people will transfer across Microsoft, including 4,700 people in Finland and 18,300 employees directly involved in product manufacture. If you thought it was only the Windows Phone component of the phone business, you'd be wrong: Microsoft will also take into ownership Nokia's Asha range of feature phones. Patent-wise, Microsoft gets 10-year non-exclusive license to its Finnish partner's library of ideas and "reciprocal rights" to use Microsoft patents within its HERE mapping services. While Microsoft will be able to use the Nokia branding on its products, the Finnish company will now focus on its mapping, infrastructure and advanced tech arms.

Update: In Microsoft's presentation on the rationale of the acquisition, the two parties state that "we are confident about our prospects for approval by early 2014." Just a few more months to go!

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Source: Nokia

The Daily Roundup for 07.11.2013

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DNP The Daily RoundUp

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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The Engadget Interview: Nokia’s Stephen Elop on the Lumia 1020

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The Engadget Interview Nokia's Stephen Elop on the Lumia 1020

As expected, the Nokia Lumia 1020 arrived with 41 megapixels in tow at today's event in New York City. Got questions? Yeah, us too. Thankfully, we had a bit of time to sit down with none other than Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who was fresh off the on-stage Q&A, wearing a slick pair of bright yellow Converse All-Stars, in honor of the eye-popping color scheme of the handset he showed off earlier today. Elop seemed genuinely excited by his new device (even jokingly correcting me when I called it his "new toy"), taking a picture of us immediately after entering the room -- or, rather, he took a picture of our own Richard Lai and zoomed out to reveal me. The concept of re-framing is a huge part of what Nokia's selling -- take a picture first and worry about framing it later. With 41 megapixels, it's easy enough to zoom in or out after the fact.

Richard brought along a trio of handsets for comparison, including the N8, 808 PureView and the recent Lumia 925, so naturally we started with a little history -- much like the press conference itself. Of interest was at precisely what point Nokia began to envision optics as one of, if not the, key focus of its handsets. It was an appropriate visual from Elop's point of view -- the executive sees all of the above as entries in the company's evolutionary line. Nokia's focusing on improving the experience a bit with each and every link, says Elop, with the latest handset building atop of the lessons learned. The Lumia 1020 is, naturally, a culmination of those lessons.

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Live from the ‘Connecting the Next Billions’ keynote with Stephen Elop, Gary Kovacs and more

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Live from the Connecting the next billions keynote

Mozilla's Gary Kovacs has been harping on this idea of connecting the next billion or so people to the internet all week -- it's one of the driving philosophies behind Firefox OS. Nokia is looking to bring down the cost of entry to the mobile web with the 105 and 301. Then there are operations like Qtel and Bharti Airtel, that provide cellular service across the developing world and in emerging markets. These companies are all looking to put the democratizing power of the web in the pockets of people across the globe, and they're all here at Mobile World Congress 2013 to discuss just how they plan to do that and why it's so important. To find out what these CEOs, including Stephen Elop, Dr. Nasser Marafih (Qtel) and Sunil Mittal (Bharti Airtel) have to say, check back in at the time below.

February 26, 2013 3:00 AM EST

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The Engadget Interview: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop at MWC 2013

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The Engadget Interview Nokia CEO Stephen Elop at MWC 2013

Nokia just launched the stylish Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 Windows Phones plus a pair of affordable candy bar handsets (Nokia 301 and 105) here at MWC 2013. We spent a few brief minutes with CEO Stephen Elop to discuss the announcement -- chatting about the common design language and the incredible price points for these devices (€15 / $20 for the Nokia 105 and €139 / $184 for the Lumia 520). I also quizzed Mr. Elop about the Lumia 920's ongoing camera woes and what's being done to address them we discussed the company's recent focus on entry-level smartphones like the delightful Lumia 620 and what it means in terms of strategy. Hit the break to watch our video interview.

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Behind the scenes history of MeeGo reveals Nokia’s abandoned tablet and Verizon N9

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Behindthescenes history of Meego reveals

Finnish site Taskumuro has produced an incredibly detailed behind-the-scenes history of Nokia's wonderful, yet doomed, MeeGo OS. Talking to current and ex-employees of the phone maker, it learned that a tablet (codenamed Senna) and CDMA Nokia N9 for Verizon were both in development before Stephen Elop killed the project dead around the time of the "burning platform" memo. The report also claims that the company's decision to develop Maemo (later MeeGo) in tandem with Symbian led to a developer turf-war, that the Swipe UI was cooked up at the 80/20 Design Studio in New York and the team had planned an Apple-esque strategy of releasing a single phone every year. If you'd like to learn more (and about how the original article was translated from Finnish into English in under 10 hours), head on down to the source links.

[Thanks, Masa and Justus]

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Behind the scenes history of MeeGo reveals Nokia's abandoned tablet and Verizon N9 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How would you change Nokia’s Lumia 900?

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While this regular feature is called How Would You Change, in the case of Nokia's Lumia 900, it seems more apt to change the question to "What Killed It?." The flagship was designed to break the US from its traditional indifference to the company, yet only 600,000 users took the plunge. Firstly, despite its low price and smooth performance, it had mediocre specs and a middling display, while customers were outraged when the incompatible Windows Phone 8 and the Lumia 920 supplanted it half a year later. This week, we're asking you to play armchair Elop and tell us what you'd have done differently if they'd asked you.

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How would you change Nokia's Lumia 900? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 22:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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