Nokia Plan B was just a hoax all along

There's been a lot of chatter about a "Nokia Plan B" over the past 48 hours -- the site was put up by "nine young investors" who outlined an audacious plan to rally shareholders, get themselves elected onto Nokia's board, and radically change the company's direction by firing Stephen Elop and committing massive resources to MeeGo. Needless to say, it resonated with many of Nokia's now disenfranchised fans and employees, and it made some serious waves -- enough so that Plan B was picked up by several major news outlets, including this morning's print edition of the Wall Street Journal.

There's just one problem, though: the "nine young investors" don't really exist -- according to the last tweet on the @NokiaPlanB Twitter account, it was all a hoax perpetuated by "one very bored engineer who really likes his iPhone." Ouch. That explains why the now-defunct site abruptly gave up the cause this morning after just 36 hours of existence, and it definitely explains why we never got any response to our emails trying to get further information. We'll award points for bravado and for doing a better job of rallying the troops than Nokia itself, we suppose, but we're sure quite a few Nokia fans are going to be crushed at this news. On the bright side, Plan B did inspire the excellent NokiaPlanS.com, which is sure to bring a smile to even the loneliest hearts in Espoo.