14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft continues the search for a new CEO, with people close to the matter saying that an announcement on this is said to be made by year-end.
Wall Street Journal is reporting that both Tony Bates, head of Skype, and Satya Nadella, head of the cloud and enterprise division, are in the race for the CEO seat. Bates and Nadella reportedly met with the search committee to discuss a potential takeover of the vacant role.
At the same time, Redmond is said to be negotiating with eight external candidates, including Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally. While the American carmaker’s boss is tipped with the biggest chances to take over from Ballmer, Ford’s board of directors said that he was planning to stay with the company until at least 2014.
What’s more, it appears that outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer is a strong supporter of Mulally, as the man still in charge with Microsoft believes that Ford’s boss has what it takes to continue Redmond’s path to increased profitability.
Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, former Microsoft executive and currently Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz, former Oracle executive Charles Phillips, and former HP CEO Mark Hurd are also said to be negotiating with the company on the CEO position.