The golden handshake severance payment is jointly funded by Microsoft and Nokia. Microsoft is paying the biggest share, 70 percent, and Nokia is picking up the remainder.

Elop has and continues to do well out of the deal. Having worked at Microsoft before, he hopped into Nokia for a while only to go back to Redmond with a lot more money than he had the last time he was there.

The transition has not been all that smooth, though, and Elop has been accused of being a Trojan horse, sent into Nokia to chart its demise.