14 DAY TRIAL // A couple of weeks ago, a report that cited people familiar with Microsoft’s CEO search revealed that some of the candidates were refusing to take over the leading seat at the software giant due to the influence that Steve Ballmer might have after his retirement.
But it turns out that both Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are actually scaring away candidates, as a new report rolled out by the Wall Street Journal suggests that this could be one of the reasons why Alan Mulally decided to stay at Ford.
As you probably know if you’re a Microsoft fanatic and you followed the news regarding Microsoft’s CEO adventure, Alan Mulally was one of the leading candidates for the vacant seat, even though he said that the wanted to stay at Ford until late 2014.
Sources close to the matter claimed that Mulally, who was known as a true turnaround business man, was a front-runner for the CEO seat at Microsoft, together with several internals.
But a couple of days ago, Mulally himself denied any potential talks, saying that he doesn’t want to join Microsoft, as he intends to stay at Ford until late 2014.
A new report by the Wall Street Journal and citing people close to Mulally reveal that one of the reasons why he decided to rule himself out of the talks was the fact that both Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates would remain at Microsoft in the coming years.
Mulally was apparently afraid that Gates and Ballmer would be very influential and some of his decisions could actually be reverted by the two.
While Steve Ballmer has already confirmed his intentions to remain on board after leaving the CEO seat, Bill Gates recently revealed that although he won’t take over the CEO role, he wants to get involved more at the company and work closer with whoever takes over from Ballmer.
At this point, cloud boss Satya Nadella is in pole-position to replace Ballmer, while former Nokia boss Stephen Elop and internals Kevin Turner and Tony Bates are also said to be involved in negotiations.