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BARCELONA, Spain – Investors have panned his shake-up strategy and employees are rankled. Now, Nokia Corp.'s Stephen Elop, the first non-Finn to lead the world's largest maker of phones, is in a hurry to justify his decision to ditch the company's smart-phone software in favor of a former employer's, Microsoft.
He has a lot of ground to cover.
Nokia's stock, which lost 14 percent after the Microsoft deal was announced Friday, fell a further 4 percent in midday European trading Monday and about the same in the U.S. when the market opened. Nokia employees are showing their displeasure with their feet, walking out from work en masse on Friday.
Elop presented his case, to both investors and employees, at the world's largest cell-phone trade show, which opened Monday in Barcelona, Spain.
After the companies said Friday that the tie-up will lead to more innovation and a broader global reach, Elop said Monday that the deal also means billions of dollars for Nokia from Microsoft,
Elop, who is Canadian, then addressed changes for employees during an interview with The Associated Press.
"Every employee goes through an emotional journey, and the emotional journey is difficult, because this is such a big change," he said. "I've had four and a half months to go through my emotional journey, ending up in a very different position from what I had assumed when I first joined."
Nokia has been losing market share to Apple Inc. and others that have moved aggressively into the smart phone market.
The company's worldwide market share in smart phones was just over 30 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 40 percent a year earlier. It's still the biggest maker of non-smart phones, but everyone in the industry believes smart phones are the future.
The shift has been so drastic that Elop, in a memo leaked last week, compared the company to a burning oil platform, asking employees to jump off of it with him in search of a safer place.
He has a lot of ground to cover.
Nokia's stock, which lost 14 percent after the Microsoft deal was announced Friday, fell a further 4 percent in midday European trading Monday and about the same in the U.S. when the market opened. Nokia employees are showing their displeasure with their feet, walking out from work en masse on Friday.
Elop presented his case, to both investors and employees, at the world's largest cell-phone trade show, which opened Monday in Barcelona, Spain.
After the companies said Friday that the tie-up will lead to more innovation and a broader global reach, Elop said Monday that the deal also means billions of dollars for Nokia from Microsoft,
Elop, who is Canadian, then addressed changes for employees during an interview with The Associated Press.
"Every employee goes through an emotional journey, and the emotional journey is difficult, because this is such a big change," he said. "I've had four and a half months to go through my emotional journey, ending up in a very different position from what I had assumed when I first joined."
Nokia has been losing market share to Apple Inc. and others that have moved aggressively into the smart phone market.
The company's worldwide market share in smart phones was just over 30 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 40 percent a year earlier. It's still the biggest maker of non-smart phones, but everyone in the industry believes smart phones are the future.
The shift has been so drastic that Elop, in a memo leaked last week, compared the company to a burning oil platform, asking employees to jump off of it with him in search of a safer place.