India-born Satya Nadella likely to be named next Microsoft CEO

New York: The board of directors at Microsoft is preparing to tap 47-year-old charismatic Hyderabad born Satya Nadella as CEO Steve Ballmer’s successor and is also holding discussions to replace Chairman Bill Gates, according to media reports.

Nadella, who joined Microsoft in 1992, is executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company’s computing platforms, developer tools and cloud services. Bloomberg News said Nadella jumped forward as the front runner in recent weeks as Ballmer’s replacement beating out a field of talented external candidates that included Ford Motor’s CEO Alan Mulally, Qualcomm Inc CEO-elect Steve Mollenkopf and Ericsson AB CEO Hans Vestberg.

[caption id=“attachment_1367981” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Image: Microsoft[/caption]

When contacted by Firstpost, Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw declined to confirm or deny the reports and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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According to analysts, Microsoft has good reason for leaning towards a company man like Nadella as he is the cloud guru within Microsoft and it has been very successful over the past few years.

“He’s an enterprise guy,” analyst Mark Moerdler, of Bernstein Research told MarketWatch. “The real opportunity for Microsoft is in that they are moving to more cloud and subscription services. And here’s a guy who does that.”

“There will be more focus on the cloud and subscription story,” Moerdler told MarketWatch. “How many cloud vendors are growing by 107 percent? There’s only one, and that’s Microsoft.”
One of the main catalysts behind Microsoft’s great second quarter is its cloud services division. When Microsoft reported its fiscal second-quarter results on January 23, 2014 it said its commercial cloud services grew revenue by 107 percent to $609 from a year ago.

Nadella and his team deliver “Cloud OS”, Microsoft’s next generation backend platform that not only powers all of Microsoft’s Internet scale cloud services (including O365, Bing, SkyDrive, Xbox Live, Skype and Dynamics) but also offers businesses everywhere products that make up the Cloud OS, including Windows Azure, Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio and System Center.

According to Gartner, the market for corporate cloud services will grow 45 percent to $13 billion in 2014 from $9 billion in 2013.

Previously, Nadella was president of Microsoft’s $19 billion Server and Tools Business and led the transformation of the business and technology from client-server software to cloud infrastructure and services.

Nadella has degrees in electrical engineering, computer science and business, covering all the bases to build devices and software services. Born in Hyderabad, Nadella earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from India and graduated from Mangalore University and the Manipal Institute of Technology. He also has a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.

Bloomberg News reported that John Thomson, the software giant’s lead independent director, emerged to replace Chairman Bill Gates who rode the tech revolution in such style, but is far more famous these days for his philanthropy in places like India. Should Ballmer and Gates depart, the software giant would be without its two most recognizable figures for the first time in its 39-year history.

An announcement was expected as soon as Friday. Microsoft shares were up 1 percent on Thursday to $37.20, in after-hours trading.