Gang of nine plots Nokia's salvation

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 10:45

IT Industry - Strategy

A group of nine, as yet unidentified, Nokia shareholders opposed to the Microsoft alliance has set up a web site to lobby shareholder support for an alternative plan that would see the alliance scrapped, and CEO Stephen Elop sacked along with number of other senior executives.

This 'gang of nine' is hoping to garner sufficient shareholder support to gain control of the Nokia board at the company's AGM on 3 May. They have launched a web site 'Nokia Plan B' (http://nokiaplanb.com) on which they describe themselves as "a group of nine young Nokia shareholders'¦[all of whom] have worked with Nokia in different capacities in the past."

The pledge that, if given control of the Nokia board they would:
- Immediately discharge Stephen Elop from his duties as president and CEO of the company;
- Restructure the alliance with Microsoft as a tactical exercise focused primarily at the North American market;
- Make MeeGo Nokia's primary smartphone platform;
- Increase the lifespan of Symbian to a minimum of five years;
- Implement a developer strategy based on Qt with primary focus on MeeGo, but providing a credible developer story for Symbian;
- Transition to an R&D setup where 90 percent of all Nokia R&D takes place in only two geographical locations, one of which will be in Finland;
- Bring all core software and hardware development in-house;
- Immediate discharge Tero Ojänpera, Niklas Savander and Mary McDowell from all their duties with the company, and possibly other members of the Nokia leadership team following individual reviews with the board;
- Aggressively recruit young software talent from top universities.