I should have split my comment - I didn't really mean to imply that the reason his time was quite short was because I don't think he performed at the same level of Sinofsky.
To be clear (and fair to Elop), whether or not he was effective at his role wasn't very clear to me. What I can say is this:
* His time at Microsoft was quite short. While he may have a monetary incentive for this deal, I doubt he has any cultural ties to "go Microsoft"
* His impact on MS was (to me, anyway) minimal. He seemed to be in charge of keeping the ship going in a straight line, without the pressure of changing direction. There definitely wasn't anything like what is going on at Nokia to "test his mettle", so to speak.