Stephen Elop, Nokia’s chief executive, has silenced rumours that the mobile phone maker’s partnership with Microsoft could lead to a takeover.
Elop’s announcement comes one month after he revealed that the Finnish company were cutting 4,000 jobs in the UK, Denmark and Finland and outsourcing another 3,000 jobs to Accenture.
Takeover speculation has been fuelled by a profit warning plunging stocks to a 13-year low. Elop maintains that Nokia and Microsoft are working in partnership to embed Windows’ mobile phone operating system into Nokia phones.
Elop says: “My principal focus and the focus of the team is to take care of the short term but make sure that the execution is flawless.”
Clearly keen to downplay takeover rumours, Elop maintains that a takeover from his former employer Microsoft would be unrealistic due to the number of mass-market phones that Nokia sells (80%).
Since his appointment in September 2010, Elop has focused the mobile phone company on smart phones, in order for it to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android.
