Possibly the best deal Elop had was the agreement that Microsoft would buy his house at the difference between its purchase price and the appraised value as the sharp decline in California real estate resulted in a sale way below the purchase price, adjusted for improvements. In other words, Microsoft ate the difference. And while it had to record that difference as income, the company was also required by its agreement with Elop to gross up the amount for tax purposes. The relocation expense was recorded as $4.15 million in 2009 with the gross up costing $1.4 million that year and less than $7,000 in both categories occurring in 2010. Microsoft said the deal with fundamentally fair to Elop and Microsoft. I wonder if Microsoft put a sign in front of Elop’s house, "Your software dollars at work."