Posted on Wednesday, February 16 2011 @ 16:11 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
There's just one problem, though: the "nine young investors" don't really exist -- according to the last tweet on the @NokiaPlanB Twitter account, it was all a hoax perpetuated by "one very bored engineer who really likes his iPhone."
An attempt by a small number of Nokia shareholders to overthrow Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and reverse the partnership with Nokia has died with a whimper. Nine shaderholders wanted to challenge the deal and present their "Plan B" at the next Nokia shareholders meeting, but the plan has been stopped in its tracks because it's too radical for institutional investors. Plan B proponents now recommend disgruntled shareholders to sell their stock and invest in companies that follow their strategy.
If elected to a majority in the Nokia board of directors, they had planned to remove Stephen Elop as CEO, restructure the alliance with Microsoft, make Meego Nokia's primary smartphone operating system, extend the lifespan of Symbian, and aggressively recruit young talent.Source: The Inquirer
But Plan B stopped before it even got started. Although it was contacted by hundreds of individual shareholders pledging their support, the same could not be said for institutional investors.
The rogue shareholders said on the Plan B blog, "These institutions have a fiduciary responsibility to their customers and are legally barred from supporting radical initiatives like seating a bunch of kids on the board of directors."
