Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, said the head of its smartphone division resigned, becoming the first casualty of the change at the top of the company.
Anssi Vanjoki will stay in his job for now and has a six- month notice period, the Espoo, Finland-based company said in a statement today. Nokia last week appointed Microsoft Corp.’s business division president, Stephen Elop, to take over from Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as chief executive officer.
Vanjoki, a 20-year Nokia veteran, is the last executive remaining from Chairman Jorma Ollila’s 1990s “Dream Team,” which also included Kallasvuo, whose final day on the job is Sept. 20. Elop will take over the next day.
Barclays Capital upgraded Nokia to “overweight” from “equal weight,” and said in a note dated today that it expects Elop to help the company’s stuttering software operations and possibly change its operating systems.
“This marks the end of an era at Nokia and could signal further management changes to follow,” CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood said by text message.
Nokia gained as much as 2.6 percent to 7.99 euros and was trading up 2.4 percent at 7.98 euros at 12:13 p.m. in Helsinki.
‘Dramatic Change’ .
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