Nokia’s chairman asked Stephen Elop, the Finnish group’s former chief executive, if he would forgo part or all of his €18.8m pay-off several days ago as the furore over it grew.
几天前,诺基亚(Nokia)董事长曾经问过前首席执行官斯蒂芬•埃洛普(Stephen Elop),他是否愿意放弃部分或全部1880万欧元奖金。里斯托-斯拉斯玛(Risto Siilasmaa)这么做,是因为人们对这起奖金事件的愤慨日益高涨。

People close to Nokia said that as pressure mounted over the weekend from Finnish politicians, including the prime minister, Risto Siilasmaa enquired whether Mr Elop would returnsome of the money.
知情人士表示,包括总理在内的芬兰政界人士周末期间相继向诺基亚施压,斯拉斯玛于是询问埃洛普能否归还部分奖金。

Mr Elop declined. According to one person familiar with the matter and the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, he told Mr Siilasmaa he could not do so as he was in the middle of divorcing his wife. Nokia said it had no comment on the matter.
埃洛普予以回绝。根据一位知情人士以及《赫尔辛基新闻报》(Helsingin Sanomat)的报道,埃洛普告诉斯拉斯玛,他不能遵命,因为他正在和妻子办理离婚。诺基亚拒绝就此事置评。

It is the latest twist in a week-long drama that has brought Nokia, its board and Mr Elop under scrutiny. Criticism of Mr Elop’s pay-off peaked on Saturday when Jyrki Katainen, Finland’s prime minister, called it “quite outrageous”.
这是这起戏剧性事件的最新变化。这起持续了一周之久的事件使诺基亚、诺基亚董事会以及埃洛普受到密切关注。对埃洛普奖金的抨击上周六达到高潮,当时芬兰总理于尔基-卡泰宁(Jyrki Katainen)称这笔奖励“非常过分”。

Mr Siilasmaa, who had defended the pay-off on Friday in a brief statement, was forced to admit this week that he had given misleading information and that Mr Elop in fact had a more lucrative contract than his predecessors.
斯拉斯玛上周五在一份简短声明中为这笔奖励辩护。本周他被迫承认,他发表了误导性言论,实际上埃洛普的合同比其前任的更加诱人。

Speaking to the Financial Times on Wednesday, Mr Siilasmaa sought to draw a line under the pay-off saga. He started by apologising for the lack of clarity in Nokia’s disclosure of the pay-off in proxy materials on Thursday for its November shareholder meeting.
斯拉斯玛本周三接受英国《金融时报》采访时试图给这起事件划上句号。他首先就上周四有关11月份股东大会委托材料中诺基亚披露的奖励问题不清晰道歉。

“It is first of all a very complicated set of contracts. There has been a very emotional discussion in the last few days and I understand it is very difficult to understand [the proxy material]. It is not very clear,” he said.
他表示:“首先这是一套非常复杂的合同。过去几天来的讨论中,人们十分激动,我知道大家很难理解(委托材料)。材料的表述不是很清晰。”

But Mr Siilasmaa defended the payout, under which Microsoft – which is buying Nokia’s mobile phone business for €5.44bn and which is Mr Elop’s past and future employer – is paying 70 per cent of the cash. “I was very happy because I felt I was saving quite a lot of shareholders’ money.”
但斯拉斯玛为这笔奖励辩护。微软(Microsoft)将支付奖励的70%。“我很高兴,因为我感到我这么做为股东省了一大笔钱。”微软将以54.4欧元的价格收购诺基亚手机业务,微软既是埃洛普过去的东家,也是他未来的东家。

He explained why Nokia had amended Mr Elop’s contract at the same time as the Microsoft deal, saying that otherwise Mr Elop had the right to “call a breach if we change[d] his role considerably”.
斯拉斯玛解释了为什么诺基亚在与微软进行交易的同时修改了埃洛普的合同。他表示,如果不这么做,“在我们对他的职位进行大调整时”,埃洛普有权“称之为违约”。

Despite changing the contract to ensure Mr Elop did not have to resign to trigger his pay-off, Mr Siilasmaa said there had never been any question of the former chief executive resigning: “Stephen has been very constructive throughout the process.”
斯拉斯玛表示,尽管为了保证埃洛普不必通过辞职来触发他的补偿金而变更了合同,但整个过程中没有出现过这位前首席执行官辞职的问题:“在整个过程中斯蒂芬极具建设性。”

He added that Mr Elop had waived his right to call his demotion from chief executive a breach. “The net outcome to Stephen is only negative. From our shareholders’ point of view the big difference is if he had called it a breach we would have had to pay all the compensation,” Mr Siilasmaa said.
他补充道,埃洛普放弃了自己的权利,没有把从首席执行官位置上降职称为违约。斯拉斯玛表示:“对斯蒂芬来说,结果纯粹是负面的。从我们股东的角度来说,最大的差异是,如果他认为这是违约,我们就只能支付全部补偿金。”

沪江BEC带你精读金融时报合辑>>

更多相关内容,请看沪江BEC商务英语分站>>