Microsoft is looking forward to a major overhaul in the company especially when it is turning its focus from software to hardware and internet-based services.
Microsoft, according to latest reports, is about to have a new CEO. The company’s board is believed to be quite optimistic about naming Indian-born Satya Nadella as its next CEO. The board will likely choose a new Chairman as well replacing Bill Gates.
Nadella, who is currently Microsoft’s enterprise and cloud chief, is likely to replace Steve Ballmer who had already declared that he would quit in August 2014 after heading Microsoft for 10 years. Some reports even suggest that Ballmer would quit right away once the board has chosen a new CEO. Even though the sources of these reports have said that the board hasn’t chosen the new CEO yet but Nadella emerged to be the strongest candidate for the post.
As far as deciding on a new chairman, Bill Gates will likely be replaced by Microsoft’s lead independent director John Thompson. But sources suggest that even if Gates steps down, he will be more involved in the company in areas like product development.
If Nadella is chosen as the new CEO of the company, he will become the third CEO of Microsoft which has only had two CEO’s in history so far namely Gates and Ballmer.
Satya Nadella has been working in Microsoft for over 20 years and has lead cloud services, server software, Internet search and business applications divisions of Microsoft. As president of Microsoft’s server business, Nadella boosted revenue to $20.3 billion in the fiscal year through June, up from $16.6 billion when he took over in 2011.
Professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Michael Cusumano says that Nadella is a good choice due to his close ties and strong reputation within Microsoft’s huge engineering corps. He adds, “Microsoft is a contentious enough place that you wouldn’t want to bring in someone who lacked credibility with the engineers.”
Before joining Microsoft, Nadella studied Electrical Engineering in India and then moved to United States to study computer science. He has also worked with Sun Microsystems till 1992.
New rumors suggest that Microsoft might announce the name of its new CEO within next week.
Source: Bloomberg