Sunday, March 13, 2011

Nokia gives CEO $6.2M to offset lost Microsoft pay

cat1 NewsFea Nokia gives CEO $6.2M to offset lost Microsoft pay

The executive hired to turn around mobile phone maker Nokia is getting $6.2 million to make up for the paychecks he lost when he left Microsoft last fall.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop received a payment of about $3.2 million (2.3 million euros) last October, according to a filing Friday with U.S. regulators. He is due to receive another $3 million this October.

Elop also received about $710,000 (510,000 euros) to cover money he had to repay Microsoft and another $435,000 (312,000 euros) to reimburse him for legal fees related to his move from Microsoft.

Nokia, based in Finland, set Elop’s first-year salary at 1.05 million euros ($1.46 million) and gave him other long-term incentives that included 500,000 stock options.

Elop joined Nokia Corp. in September, ending a two-year stint at Microsoft Corp. He announced last month that Nokia’s phones will switch to an operating system made by Microsoft in an attempt to revive the phone maker’s fortunes.

Although it remains the world’s leading mobile phone maker, Nokia has been losing market share to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and handsets relying on Google Inc.’s Android operating system.