'Well deserved': Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella congratulates new Google CEO Sundar Pichai

A little over a year ago, as news of Microsoft’s long-term CEO Steve Ballmer stepping down started doing the rounds of the internet, two names surfaced immediately as his possible successors: Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai. Nadella had been working for Microsoft since 1992, Pichai was Google Android’s head. While there were no concrete reports of Microsoft negotiating with Pichai, the rumours began to gain momentum. [caption id=“attachment_2387250” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai. Reuters.[/caption] A ‘race’ between Pichai, who hails from Tamil Nadu and Nadella, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, to head one of the world’s largest tech companies was a contest made in heaven for Indian geeks. Especially because regardless of who won the imagined race, the Indian tech-lover would have won anyway. In fact, users on Quora started several threads comparing Pichai and Nadella’s careers, others discussed how Indians made it to the top of tech giants citing the rumours that the duo were in the running to become Microsoft’s CEO. Putting end to speculations on 4 February, 2014 Microsoft announced Nadella as the company’s CEO. If Pichai’s fans were left slightly heartbroken back then, it’s time to rejoice now. And to add to the celebrations, Nadella has congratulated Pichai on Twitter and has said that the latter deserves every bit of the adulation he is receiving at the moment. Pichai replied with a polite thank you and a smiley. However, that Twitter interaction is the stuff that tech lovers’ dream tweets are made of. No wonder then, that they have been on a retweeting spree.

Congrats @sundarpichai well deserved!

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) August 10, 2015

@satyanadella thanks for the wishes:)

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) August 11, 2015

Not just retweets, Twitter users have gone on a virtual joyride speculating which other international tech giants should be led by Indians. Obviously, Apple has come up frequently in those discussions. Tim Cook is probably not amused.