14 DAY TRIAL // While Ford’s Alan Mulally and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella are both said to be front-runners for the CEO position at Microsoft, another internal candidate is said to be the right choice for the Redmond-based tech giant.
People familiar with Microsoft’s business told AllThingsD that Tony Bates, executive vice president of Microsoft responsible for Business Development, Strategy and Evangelism, should be the one to take over from Ballmer when the current CEO retires.
His past experience at Cisco, a company which at that time had 12,000 workers worldwide, places Bates in a very good position in the race for the CEO role, these people told the source. At the same time, Bates is very familiar with Microsoft’s business, joining Redmond after the Skype acquisition and staying on board for several more years.
“Tony is a bold choice that would say a lot to the rest of the tech world that Microsoft is ready to engage,” one of the people said to be backing Bates was quoted as saying. “Mulally makes sense only if the board wants a transitional figure, which means it basically doesn’t know what to do yet.”
“He is the best candidate across all of the various criteria,” another one added.
Microsoft, on the other hand, is said to be considering five different names, two of which are believed to be front-runners for this position.
Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally and internal Satya Nadella are both at the top of the shortlist, even though Microsoft has until now refused to comment on its CEO search.
A committee in charge of searching for a new CEO and including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates himself is currently negotiating with all these candidates, so a public announcement on the new CEO is very likely to be made by the end of the year.