Coming and going -- not actually working -- reaps Nokia CEO $31.7 million

When the former head of Nokia returns to Microsoft sometime next year he will have pulled down $31.7 million from Nokia just for coming and going, according to regulatory filings.

When Stephen Elop left Microsoft in 2010 to join Nokia, his new employer paid him $6.2 million as compensation for legal expenses and salary lost.

[ For quick, smart takes on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. | Find out what topics and issues affect tech's biggest names and news makers in the IDGE Insider CEO interview series. | Read Bill Snyder's Tech's Bottom Line blog for what the key business trends mean to you. ]

MORE: Microsoft, Nokia may be readying a one-two tablet punch
FAQ:The Microsoft-Nokia deal 

Now that Microsoft has bought Nokia and he's returning to head up its devices division he'll be collecting $25.46 million as part of a Nokia package.

His first-year salary at Nokia was $1.46 million.

According to proxy material for a special Nokia shareholders' meeting to vote on the Microsoft-Nokia deal, he is getting the money through a renegotiated service contract. The contract says he is entitled to 18 months base salary plus short-term management incentives calculated as if he's reached 100 percent of his target even if he hasn't. It also entitles him to vest his outstanding equity awards, the proxy document says.

Microsoft will actually pay 70 percent of that cost as part of the $7.2 billion deal to purchase Nokia.

Elop has a non-compete agreement with Nokia not to work for specific competitors including Microsoft, but that restriction will be lifted when he starts working there, the document says.

Elop's name has been bandied about as a possible replacement for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who has announced he's retiring from the company sometime in the next year.

Tim Greene covers Microsoft and unified communications for Network World and writes the Mostly Microsoft blog. Reach him at tgreene@nww.com and follow him on Twitter@Tim_Greene.

Read more about anti-malware in Network World's Anti-malware section.

View the original article here

Coming and going -- not actually working -- reaps Nokia CEO $31.7M

September 20, 2013 05:59 AM ETNetwork World - When the former head of Nokia returns to Microsoft sometime next year he will have pulled down $31.7 million from Nokia just for coming and going, according to regulatory filings.

When Stephen Elop left Microsoft in 2010 to join Nokia, his new employer paid him $6.2 million as compensation for legal expenses and salary lost.

MORE: Microsoft, Nokia may be readying a one-two tablet punchA

FAQ:The Microsoft-Nokia dealA

Now that Microsoft has bought Nokia and he's returning to head up its devices division he'll be collecting $25.46 million as part of a Nokia package.

His first-year salary at Nokia was $1.46 million.

According to proxy material for a special Nokia shareholders' meeting to vote on the Microsoft-Nokia deal, he is getting the money through a renegotiated service contract. The contract says he is entitled to 18 months base salary plus short-term management incentives calculated as if he's reached 100% of his target even if he hasn't. It also entitles him to vest his outstanding equity awards, the proxy document says.

Microsoft will actually pay 70% of that cost as part of the $7.2 billion deal to purchase Nokia.

Elop has a non-compete agreement with Nokia not to work for specific competitors including Microsoft, but that restriction will be lifted when he starts working there, the document says.

Elop's name has been bandied about as a possible replacement for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who has announced he's retiring from the company sometime in the next year.

Tim Greene covers Microsoft and unified communications for Network World and writes the Mostly Microsoft blog. Reach him at tgreene@nww.com and follow him on Twitter@Tim_Greene.

Read more about anti-malware in Network World's Anti-malware section.

Reprinted with permission from NetworkWorld.com. Story copyright 2012 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.

View the original article here

Microsoft working out kinks in Outlook.com's IMAP implementation

September 13, 2013 03:27 PM ETIDG News Service - Getting Outlook.com to work with email client applications via IMAP is proving to be a challenge for some users of the Microsoft webmail service.

A variety of problems have been reported through comments in the blog post Microsoft published Thursday announcing the new IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) support in Outlook.com.

To their credit, Microsoft officials are clearly monitoring the feedback very closely, as evidenced by their frequent replies to the comments being posted.

"We've seen a handful of reports of users running into the error 9 so we're looking into this with high priority," wrote Ben Poon, an Outlook.com program manager with Microsoft, referring to a server timeout error some users are experiencing.

Another common complaint is that messages deleted using IMAP-compliant client applications remain on the Outlook.com Web interface.

The thread of comments, which is now nearing 80, also goes into questions and recommendations about specific configurations under certain scenarios and for particular OSes and email applications.

Matthew Cain, a Gartner analyst, said that scaling up IMAP support, particularly given the various ways IMAP can be interpreted by developers, can be difficult.

"Thorough testing at scale, and testing of all major permutations, is a requirement before any go-live action," Cain said via email.

Microsoft declined to comment on the issues.

In its announcement Thursday, the company said that support for the IMAP email retrieval technology would expand the scope of client software and devices that can interact with Outlook.com.

"With today's announcement, we now have a richer email experience across devices and apps, including those not using EAS (Exchange ActiveSync), such as Mac Mail and Thunderbird on a Mac," wrote Microsoft official Steve Kafka in the blog post.

Outlook.com already worked with EAS, which allows it to be used with devices running the Windows Phone, iOS and Android mobile operating systems, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft was prompted to add IMAP support based on feedback from Outlook.com users who let the company know "loud and clear that this was important," Kafka wrote.

The addition of IMAP also opens the door for third-party developers to create applications for Outlook.com or integrate existing applications with it.

Microsoft detailed in its blog post how several developers have already linked their applications and Web services with Outlook.com using IMAP.

One of them is TripIt, which can now detect emails with travel confirmations in Outlook.com inboxes and import them into a TripIt itinerary.

Outlook.com, first unveiled in mid-2012, has replaced Hotmail as the company's webmail service. Microsoft describes Outlook.com as a total reinvention of webmail, from the user interface to the back-end platform. With Outlook.com, Microsoft expects to have a stronger competitor to Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

However, Outlook.com has been hampered by occasional technical problems, including an incident last month in which the product malfunctioned in various ways for several days, as well as a prolonged outage in March.

Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

View the original article here