[sampo]

There have been rumours that the Nokia board chairman Ollila would have chosen someone from inside Nokia, but that largest owners of Nokia (some big American funds, who probably own a lot of Microsoft, too) told that this is not acceptable.

One newspaper article (in Finnish) stating this story is here: http://www.itviikko.fi/ihmiset-ja-ura/2011/01/26/kl-elop-ohi...

[shooper]

Hedge fund ownership for the level of influence you're talking about is public information. One can easily compile and compare lists of top hedge fund holders in Microsoft and Nokia.

E.g. the current list of big Nokia holders is here. http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nok/institutional-holdings

Microsoft: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/msft/institutional-holdings

Historical data should also be easy to find if someone really wants to look.

The article is in Finnish and seems to be pretty short and not even attempt some basic research for what would be a big story. Even if that were true, what has this got to do with Microsoft executives? The deal certainly didn't raise Microsoft's share price. In fact, Microsoft's share price dropped when the takeover deal was announced, so these alleged hedge funds went from a Nokia share price of $11 before they got Elop hired and ended up with $7 with a low of $1.60(!!!) after influencing the decision to go Windows Phone? Does not make much sense to me.

Again, acting in other's companies' shareholders' interests is illegal for board members, and IIRC punishable by fines and prison time.

Maybe someone from Finland can tell us if the media outlet you referenced is more like the New York Times or a tabloid trying to cash in on a controversy while peddling conspiracy theories.

[Mikeb85]

And the largest holder of Nokia shares has Microsoft as one of their largest holdings...

http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nok/institutional-holdings

http://www.nasdaq.com/quotes/institutional-portfolio/dodge--...

[shooper]

So between you and me, we uncovered more than the entire Finnish press with a few minutes of web searching?

This is looking more and more like a thread in /r/conspiracy.

Anyway, I don't know what Dodge & Cox achieved if they really influenced anything, Nokia stock went from ~$11 to $1.60 to $8 after the acquisition, and whatever Microsoft share price gained during the same time, it wasn't because of the Nokia acquisition or Windows Phone.

[sampo]

Here is another article (in Finnish), telling the same story, by Kauppalehti, the largest business-oriented newspaper in Finland.

http://www.kauppalehti.fi/etusivu/elop+ajoi+vanjoen+ohi+kalk...