Nokia's chairman Risto Siilasmaa has reportedly defended the company's decision to pay 27.3 million dollars to former chief executive Stephen Elop as part of Microsoft's takeover of its mobile business.
Siilasmaa said that he was proud of having changed Elop's contract the day before the Microsoft deal was announced, so that the US company bore 70 percent of the cost.
He further said that without the change in contract, the sinking Nokia would have had to pay the entire cost to its outgoing CEO.
According to the Courier Mail, the huge payoff has stunned egalitarian Finland, where wage rises are typically regulated in national records between trade unions and employers.
The chairman further defending the move said that Elop would have received the same compensation in both the ways, but if the contract hadn't been changed, then shareholders of Nokia would have paid in full.
Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen slammed the amount as 'crazy' and 'incomprehensible to common sense', while finance minister Jutta Urpilainen called on the Nordic nation's companies to 'moderate' executive pay.
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However, Siilasmaa defended the sum as in line with 'international remuneration practices', but agreed that these amounts were usually 'significant'.
Elop would receive 14.6 million euros in the form of Nokia stock, and the rest in cash, the report added.