Microsoft Corp. will soon name its next chief executive officer soon. Sources said that the person is an "insider."
After almost a half-year search for current CEO Steve Ballmer's replacement, the Redmond, Wash.-based company is finally set to name their next chosen leader in a few days time, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Steve Ballmer surprised the industry in August 2013 with his retirement announcement as CEO of the software giant. He gave the company a year to look for his replacement.
Several names took part in the list. There are insiders like Business Development head Tony Bates, Operating Systems Vice President Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President of Bing and Office Qi Lu, Executive Vice President of the Devices and Studios Julie Larson-Green, and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner.
There are also outsiders namely former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, Oracle Corp. President Mark Hurd and Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally. Mulally was one of the most favorable forerunners to replace Ballmer until he confirmed early this year that he's not joining Microsoft.
"I would like to end the Microsoft speculation because I have no other plans to do anything other than serve Ford," Mullaly said in an interview with the Associated Press.
On Thursday, sources of Bloomberg said that Microsoft's board was allegedly preparing to announce Satya Nadella as the third CEO of Microsoft. However, a spokesperson for the software company was unavailable to confirm speculations. If the appointment is real, it would be a major promotion for Nadella.
Nadella is the current chief of Microsoft's cloud and enterprise. He handles commercial operations that generate around 67 percent of Microsoft's gross profit. He previously led some of Bing's engineering operations.
The board was also allegedly thinking of replacing Bill Gates as the chairman, possibly with Microsoft's lead independent director John Thompson. Gates, along with Paul Allen, co-founded the world's largest software company in 1975. He is the first chief executive officer and current chairman of the company.
Gates or his spokesperson didn't immediately respond to requests for comments.
