“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 with knowledge of the process,” Dina Bass, Peter Burrows and Jonathan Erlichman report for Bloomberg.
“One person the board is considering to take the place of co-founder Gates as chairman is Microsoft lead independent director John Thompson, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private,” Bass, Burrows and Erlichman report. “Even if Gates steps down as chairman, he may be more involved in the company, said two people familiar with the matter, particularly in areas like product development.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, goodie, styli and keyboards protecting store shelving from dust to abound!
Bass, Burrows and Erlichman report, “Earlier this month, Gates, 58, who has devoted much of his time to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and charitable efforts, told Bloomberg Television that he will work on philanthropy full time for the rest of his life and contribute part time as a board member of the software maker. ‘The board is doing important work right now,’ said Gates, who created the foundation with his wife in 2000. ‘The foundation is the biggest part of my time. I put in part-time work to help as a board member. My full-time work will be the foundation for the rest of my life. I will not change that.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, um, that doesn’t sound like Gates wants more involvement with Microsoft to us.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s tough, if not impossible, to deliver the type of change Microsoft needs when you’re a lifer. 🙂
“One person the board is considering to take the place of co-founder Gates as chairman is Microsoft lead independent director John Thompson, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private,” Bass, Burrows and Erlichman report. “Even if Gates steps down as chairman, he may be more involved in the company, said two people familiar with the matter, particularly in areas like product development.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, Gates is going to become more involved. Expect the copying of Apple products to again ramp up.
Gates and Nadella: Tired and Mired™. Perfect for beleaguered Microsoft’s continued decline.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Batterysam” and “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Hmmm… Nadella is a serious enterprise guy, not the kind of person you’d look to in order to compete with the likes of Apple. He doesn’t seem like a personal/small business cloud sort of guy, or an “internet of things” guy, or a “BYOD mobile is the future” guy. He’s definitely a how do we move that massive world of lethargic Windows XP users to Windows 8.1 and beyond kind of guy. How do we continue to leverage the massive Windows user base I.e. continue to lock them in. Doesn’t make me think X-box. Seems very conservative.
You make a good point but one thing I will bet on, is that MS won’t be getting rid of the Xbox division,
FYI- XBOX 1 is failing.
Microsoft is now offering a $100 trade in for PS3s. Desperate.
I don’t know if that is true but I bought a PS4 as it was a $100 less and promoted as a gaming console. If (when) they drop the price of the Xbox One I’ll get it but until then I’ll be happy with. My PS4 and 360.
Yep. More of the same. They really need new blood.
Sanjay Jha the second.
True, I wouldn’t think they would. I guess I was trying to say he doesn’t seem very “future forward,” to me. Not the kind of person who will be re-thinking how business people work.
He will definitely be more like…
How do we move that massive world of OS X/iOS users back to Windows 8.1
Kind of guy.
“Tired and Mired.” Perfect!
Ballmer had his monkey suit, I wonder what Nadella is partial toward.
He looks too likely to be a victim of am ambush wedgie by other disgruntled employees. A pre-Marty McFly George McFly running Microsoft timidly into the ground with a “Kick Me” sign pasted on his back.
“said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private”
Let us know when white smoke pours out of the Microsoft chimney. 😉
I believe I called this one way, way back.
I realise however that prognosticators are universally reviled, so I’ll settle for just a lucky guess by a girl.
Back in the good old days they burned your kind. Guess you’re lucky compared to them.
Any change in leadership where Ballmer is likely to get praised for his “accomplishments,” instead of ridiculed for his failures, just means more of the same for Microsoft.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he made sure the world knew how absolutely screwed up Apple was in the 1990’s. He was the interim CEO (“iCEO”) because he did not even want to accept the job until he had a workable plan of transformation to save Apple. The Board (now loaded with his supporters) gave him the authority to do anything that was necessary.
If the incoming leadership at Microsoft is not able to criticize the outgoing leadership, this is just a change in name only, not a change in direction.
One more step towards irrelevance. Oh well, at least they’re making bucks. What say you IBM?…
Paul Allen. I have it from a good source who’s next-door neighbor’s friend knows somebody who says that Paul Allen will be back to run the show. Should make Bill happy. Not sure about uncle Fester?
MS has blown it lead in so many areas and failed to grasp new products early, that I truly wonder not who will lead MS, but who will break it up into smaller companies?
It certainly looks as though any potential CEO that Microsoft approached who might have had the vision to turn around the company has instead turned down the company.
Their only option now appears to be to look inside the company for somebody who they believe will consolidate what the company does best. Nadella appears to fit the bill and will doubtless be seen from Microsoft’s perspective as a good choice, but I don’t think he has the vision to spearhead any innovative changes for Microsoft.
If he does end up as CEO, Microsoft will shrink down to being a company mostly serving businesses, while the consumer products and services will wither away. In some ways, that might be the best solution for Microsoft, but the fundamental challenge will remain. How do they stop their core revenue shrinking when there are so many good alternatives to Windows and Office ?
With him stepping up and Bill Gates stepping down, things could change dramatically at Microsoft.
Yes. GatesGate perhaps ?
He’ll leave under a cloud. But it will iCloud.
who