Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

[Abhishek_]

Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

Microsoft Corp.’s board is preparing to make Satya Nadella, the company’s enterprise and cloud chief, chief executive officer and is discussing replacing Bill Gates as chairman, according to people briefed on the process.

One person the board is considering to take the place of co-founder Gates as chairman is Microsoft’s lead independent director John Thompson, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private. Gates may still play an active role at the Redmond, Washington-based company that he founded in 1975, depending on the wishes of the board and new CEO, said the people.

Nadella emerged as one of the stronger candidates to replace departing CEO Steve Ballmer weeks ago, people familiar with the search have said. The plans aren’t finished, said the people.

Thompson, who is heading the CEO search, wrote in a blog post last month that the board plans to complete a search for CEO in the “early part of 2014.” He said the board started with more than 100 candidates and has since narrowed the list. Ballmer said last August that he planned to retire within a year.

Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to comment.

CEO Candidates
The company also considered internal candidates including Executive Vice President Tony Bates and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner. External candidates have included former Nokia Oyj CEO Stephen Elop, Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally, Qualcomm Inc. CEO-elect Steve Mollenkopf and Ericsson AB CEO Hans Vestberg, people familiar with the search have said.

Some CEO candidates have declined to be considered or dropped out of the running. Vestberg has said he plans to stay at Ericsson. Mulally took himself out of the running earlier this month.

Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992 and has had leadership roles in cloud services, server software, Internet search and business applications.

To contact the reporters on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net; Peter Burrows in San Francisco at pburrows@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Erlichman in New York at jerlichman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Pui-Wing Tam at ptam13@bloomberg.net


Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO - Bloomberg

 

[bunty8591]

This is really good. This is a great achievement.

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Satya Nadella likely to be next Microsoft CEO

Currently, Satya Nadella is the president of server & tools business at Microsoft. He landed his current assignment in 2011.​

NEW DELHI: Senior Microsoft executive Satya Nadella would replace Steve Ballmer as Microsoft CEO, two media reports said today, citing sources familiar with the processes of selecting the new leader at the Redmond-based company.

Bloomberg reported that the Microsoft board was set to name Nadella, an Indian who was born in Hyderabad and who completed his engineering from Manipal University before heading to the US for higher studies, as the company's next CEO. The report also said that the board was discussing replacing Bill Gates as chairman.

The Bloomberg report came several hours after Kara Swisher, who has a fairly reliable record of breaking stories, wrote on technology website Re/code that Microsoft has apparently finalized Nadella as the next CEO of the company. Swisher wrote that a formal announcement was expected within a week.

While Bloomberg report indicated that Nadella was certain to be the next CEO, Re/code report hinted that he was among the three insiders shortlisted for the job and was the strongest candidate.

"And, at this moment, those who have watched the process think that insider Satya Nadella, who is currently leading its enterprise effort, is the likeliest internal candidate to prevail. That's due to a number of reasons, including his familiarity with the company, where he has spent much of his career, as well as a strong technical background and a varied work history at Microsoft," noted the report. "The two other insiders -- strategy head Tony Bates and Nokia leader and former Microsoft exec Stephen Elop -- seem further behind."

Currently, Nadella is the president of server & tools business at Microsoft. He landed his current assignment in 2011. Before that he was senior vice-president of R&D for the online services division and vice-president of the Microsoft business division. In total he has been with Microsoft for nearly 23 years and is considered a person who is familiar with the internal culture within the company, which has an incredibly complex corporate structure.

Nadella's appointment as CEO is likely to have mixed reactions. He is considered a person who is familiar with the Microsoft's enterprise-focussed products like MS Office, online services like Bing and cloud services like Azure. In the last few years, Microsoft has seen good adoption of products like Office 365, Azure and Windows Servers and many industry insiders believe that for the company, enterprise services and the products are the future. If that is the same consensus Microsoft board has reached, Nadella seems like an obvious and good choice as the next CEO of the company.

But at the same time Microsoft has found going a little difficult in the consumer space. Windows 8 has been considered a flop and the company is trying to fix the OS by dialling down on the Metro user interface. Also, Windows Phone has so far failed to take off even as Google's Android and Apple's iOS continue to woo consumers. In the smartphone and tablet market Microsoft has negligible share. In the personal computer market, the sale is slowing and that has hurt Microsoft and its hardware partners.

While Microsoft's financial performance remains strong, the company seems to have lost mind-share. Google and Apple are now considered more innovating and exciting technology firms compared Microsoft.

Patrick Moorhead, president at Moor Insights & Strategy and a veteran of computer industry, says that Nadella may face challenging time in fixing Microsoft's problems in consumer space.

"Satya Nadella has a lot of experience, but not as much as someone who typically runs a company of the size of Microsoft. He has spent most of his time in the enterprise space, so I think he would need a very strong lieutenant who gets the consumer market. Microsoft's biggest challenge is consumer and Satya doesn't have experience in this market," Moorhead told TOI.

Nadella is said to have little experience with smartphone, personal computer and Xbox divisions at Microsoft. This is a concern that many will raise if Nadella turns out to be the CEO of Microsoft. On Friday when Bloomberg story appeared, Peter Bright, who is Microsoft editor at technology website ArsTechnica, tweeted, "The question is: who will be the champion for mass-market consumer/end-user products?"

As focus turns on him, Nadella has been more active in talking to media in the last few months. A few months earlier in Paris he was meeting startups. He told a French publication, "Meeting with startups is important because the tech cycle is such that the small guys make it big and the big guys die".

Before that he talked to Mary Jo Foley, a long-time Microsoft watcher, for Zdnet website. He told the website that Steve Ballmer taught him "there's nothing in this industry -- and definitely in this particular segment -- that's built to last... It's all about being able to reinvent yourself."

Given the fast-changing technology market and the advances Google and Apple have made in the last few years, leaving Microsoft behind, Nadella will definitely have to reinvent Microsoft if he is its next CEO and if the company does not decide to give up its business in the consumer market.

Source:- Satya Nadella likely to be next Microsoft CEO: Report - The Times of India​

 

[shuntmaster]

Microsoft board close to naming Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella as CEO
Reuters, January 31, 2014

Bill Gates may step aside as Chairman but remain on the board, while lead independent director John Thompson will take on the Chairman role, the source said on condition of anonymity because the process is private.
Bloomberg first reported the news on Thursday.
Nadella, a native of Hyderabad, India - where Microsoft has its largest non-U.S. research center - was promoted to run the company's fast expanding cloud, or internet-based, computing initiatives in July last year as part of current CEO Steve Ballmer's radical re-organization of the company.

Nadella's appointment would make him the most powerful Indian-born tech executive in the world and put him alongside PepsiCo Inc's chief Indra Nooyi as the leader of a well-known, large-cap U.S. corporation.

Before his role in shaping Microsoft's cloud computing business, Nadella was in charge of the company's growing server and tools unit, following on from high-level roles in Microsoft's Office andBing search engine teams.

"He's a solid choice," offering continuity of strategy and proven execution, said Sid Parakh, an analyst at fund firm McAdams Wright Ragen,

Some investors had campaigned for an external CEO who might be more likely to shake up the company and reward shareholders with greater dividends and share buybacks, but Parakh said that did not mean Nadella would necessarily be unpopular with Wall Street.

"Any new CEO is going to have to have the shareholders' say in mind. But it's not certain that will translate into actions," said Parakh.

Sources had previously told Reuters that Microsoft was down to a "handful" of candidates, including Nadella, executive vice president of the cloud and enterprise group, and Tony Bates, executive vice president of business development, plus at least one external candidate.

Bloomberg added the Nadella plans had not been finalized. Microsoft declined to comment.

Microsoft shares rose 0.8 percent to $37.15 after hours, after gaining slightly in regular Nasdaq trading.

Gates exit?
There have been calls for months for Gates to step down from a group of investors who believe the company's co-founder is a block to radical change and investor-friendly moves at the technology giant.

Some investors have urged Thompson to consider the CEO role himself, sources told Reuters this week. One person close to the board told Reuters on Thursday that Thompson was not in the frame to lead the company, but did not rule out a senior executive role, such as Chairman.

Microsoft's CEO search has taken longer than most expected when Ballmer announced his plan last August to retire within a year.

In a blog post on the company's website in December, Thompson emphasized the need for a CEO with "an ability to lead a highly technical organization and work with top technical talent."

Thompson, who leads the four-member CEO search committee, said at the time he expected the panel to reach a decision "in the early part of 2014."

The appointment of a company veteran like Nadella, which follows a months-long search and extended flirtation with outsiders such as Ford Motor Co Chief Executive Alan Mulally, could disappoint some investors who were hoping for a more radical transformation at the software giant.

"While many on the Street are now expecting Mr. Nadella to get the CEO spot, we believe filling this position with a core Microsoft insider will disappoint those hoping for a fresh strategic approach (e.g. potential breakup of enterprise/consumer, Xbox spin off) an outside executive could have brought to the table," FBR analyst Daniel Ives said in a research note, adding that innovation and fresh strategies were essential for the company.

"With that said, we believe Mr. Nadella's prior roles in the Online Services Division, Business Division, and most recently as president of the Server and Tools business position him as a strong internal candidate with a broad set of knowledge around Microsoft's massive product portfolio," Ives wrote.

© Thomson Reuters 2013

Who is Satya Nadella?
Born in 1969 in Hyderabad, India, Satya Nadella finished his schooling at the Hyderabad Public School, and earned his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communication from the Manipal Institute of Technology. He, like so many of the engineers at the time, then completed his engineering education abroad, with a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Finally, he rounded off his education with a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago.

Nadella started his career at Sun Microsystems, before moving to Microsoft in 1992, where he joined as a Program Manager in the Windows Developer Relations group. Nadella quickly rose up the ranks, becoming the Senior Vice President of Research & Development for the Online Services division, the Vice President of the Microsoft Business Solutions group (MBS), and notably, the President of the $19 billion Microsoft Server and Tools Business.

During his meteoric rise, the Indian-American also founded and led the 'Microsoft bCentral' small business online services group, was general manager for the company's Commerce Platforms group, and is considered responsible for spearheading the development of the Microsoft Commerce Server, Microsoft BizTalk Server, Microsoft Office Small Business, and Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM products.

Nadella is also considered to have played a significant part in Microsoft's foray into advanced technologies like digital rights management (DRM) and interactive television (ITV).

As the head of the company's Server and Tools Business, Nadella spearheaded the 'transformation of the business and technology from client-server software to cloud infrastructure and services,' according to Microsoft.

Perfect for the top-spot at Redmond?Currently, Nadella is Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group, and in Microsoft's words, is responsible for building and running the company's computing platforms, developer tools and cloud services.

With his experience, Nadella seems to fit the envisioned role for the new CEO of Microsoft perfectly, a company that is hoping to metamorphose from a software giant into a devices and services company, a move heralded by the acquisition of Nokia's mobile division, first announced in June 2012, and development of the Surface tablet range. John Thompson, who is chairing the search committee, had described the role at Ballmer's retirement announcement:

"The board is committed to the effective transformation of Microsoft to a successful devices and services company. As this work continues, we are focused on selecting a new CEO to work with the company's senior leadership team to chart the company's course and execute on it in a highly competitive industry."
Bill Gates had also outlined the requirements for the CEO role at Microsoft, saying:

"It's a complex role to fill - a lot of different skills, experience and capabilities that we need. It's a complex global business the new CEO will have to lead. The person has to have a lot of comfort in leading a highly technical organization and have an ability to work with our top technical talent to seize the opportunities."

Apart from the evidently relevant experience in the services field, Nadella as an internal candidate may arguably be preferred over external candidates like Ford's Mulally, who will take time to learn the ropes at Microsoft.​

 

[Jade]

I think there is already a thread running on this topic. Mods should merge both the thread.

 

[boomslang]

Hey, if he can do the job, throw his *** in there.

 

[DesiGuy]

He is probably the best candidate they have.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

Given that most Indian engineers I have worked with are sort of disappointing, I would refrain from commenting too much. Nevertheless congratulations to India and Indians as your tribes have clearly out-perform all others except Jews and WASP in USA. This is an achievement.

 

[SirHatesALot]

Chinese trolls are everywhere

 

[shuntmaster]

Given that most Indian engineers I have worked with are sort of disappointing, I would refrain from commenting too much. Nevertheless congratulations to India and Indians as your tribes have clearly out-perform all others except Jews and WASP in USA. This is an achievement.

May be its something about you that attracts low quality people to you? Or maybe you should work in an organisation of higher caliber than what you are used to.

 

[Jade]

Given that most Indian engineers I have worked with are sort of disappointing, I would refrain from commenting too much. Nevertheless congratulations to India and Indians as your tribes have clearly out-perform all others except Jews and WASP in USA. This is an achievement.

Why does you company hire such underachievers? What is your company? What does it do?

 

[Lux de Veritas]

May be its something about you that attracts low quality people to you? Or maybe you should work in an organisation of higher caliber than what you are used to.

I think you are talking about your low caliber self, seeing on how you make inferences.

I am enjoying working with smart people around me but occasionally there are nuisance.

 

[HariPrasad]

One more indian will enrich America. UK, France and other European country will follow to remain in competition.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

Why does you company hire such underachievers? What is your company? What does it do?

One division is trying to rid off Tata consulting contractors, who have not been receiving any positive feedback since day one. But we would like to give them benefit of doubt. We give reasons, among them, that sub contracting fails because we are not smart enough to manage contractors.

 

[Jade]

One division is trying to rid off Tata consulting contractors, who have not been receiving any positive feedback since day one. But we would like to give them benefit of doubt. We give reasons, among them, that sub contracting fails because we are not smart enough to manage contractors.

All I can say is that any company that allows under performers to be hired either as employees or contractors is under performer. It has difficulty attracting good people. I, personally, would never work for such company.