Shareholder activists demand sacking of Nokia CEO Stephen Elop

A shareholders’ association has raised the prospect of calling an extraordinary general meeting to dismiss Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, according to reports in one of Finland’s leading business publications.

According to a Finnish-language article in Kauppalehti, Shareholders Federation chairman Timo Rothovius believes Nokia’s Windows Phone strategy is wrong, telling Wise Money magazine: “It was reported that Nokia has chosen a failed strategy, which is why the CEO in particular, should be replaced.”

“Investors who have been active on this issue have, among other things, a requirement to collect proxies for an extraordinary general meeting of the company.

“Such a meeting is convened when requested by shareholders representing at least one-tenth of all shares.”

Unsurprisingly, outspoken former Nokia executive Tomi Ahonen, who recently called Elop “the worst CEO ever”, has published an open letter on his website encouraging Nokia shareholders to fire Elop over his decision to drop Nokia’s MeeGo smartphone platform in favour of Windows Phone.

The news comes after HP announced that it has hired former MeeGo-N9 executive Alberto Torres to head a new consumer tablet division, while smartphone start-up Jolla, launched by former Nokia staff, has hinted that its forthcoming MeeGo devices will be able to run Android apps.

This article first appeared at SmartCompany.

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