For starters, they can chose to enforce a non-compete agreement or not, they're not required to go after every ex-employee (it's not like upholding a trademark).
Secondly, by all accounts Elop took the position with the full blessing of Microsoft (conspiracy theorists will bring up the "trojan horse" as a reason, but it doesn't have to be that fantastical).
Thirdly, you could make a very good argument that Nokia is not a direct competitor to Microsoft. Microsoft doesn't make phones, they license a smartphone operating system. Nokia makes smartphones, which use two operating systems (one of which they don't own, the other of which they didn't own until very recently). I suppose they own Series 40, but that's not a smartphone operating system.
Irony isn't the same thing as snark. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt that you might actually not understand the difference between the situation with Nokia and the situation with Salesforce.
If you were just trying to be funny, then my apologies.
I don't assume that I'm smarter than anybody. I also don't assume that people on here are just trying to be funny (recent influx of Reddit'isms aside), hence me trying to point out instances where Microsoft wouldn't be holding a Non-Compete against Elop.
In what market are Microsoft and Nokia direct competitors?
They had a partnership with Nokia for Symbian (Microsoft was developing Silverlight and allegedly a version of Office, although I don't know if either really existed).
Nokia's competitors are hardware phone manufacturers, which Microsoft isn't.
You might argue that they are "indirect competitors" because Microsoft makes a smartphone operating system, and Nokia uses smartphone operating systems made by someone besides Microsoft. This ignores the fact that Microsoft's customers are phone makers, and Nokia's customers are consumers.
Secondly, by all accounts Elop took the position with the full blessing of Microsoft (conspiracy theorists will bring up the "trojan horse" as a reason, but it doesn't have to be that fantastical).
Thirdly, you could make a very good argument that Nokia is not a direct competitor to Microsoft. Microsoft doesn't make phones, they license a smartphone operating system. Nokia makes smartphones, which use two operating systems (one of which they don't own, the other of which they didn't own until very recently). I suppose they own Series 40, but that's not a smartphone operating system.