Latest report from Wall Street Journal claims that Microsoft Board is already negotiating contract terms with Satya Nadella to become next chief executive. Now, we have to give more weightage to this report from WSJ, as report from Bloomberg and Recode also pitted Satya for the top job.
What is really interesting is the part of report that claims a new role for Bill Gates is what Satya wants before he says yes to the CEO role.
Mr. Nadella’s appointment could lead to a new role for Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder and chairman. Mr. Nadella has asked that Mr. Gates “spend more time on technology and strategy” to assist him as CEO, according to person familiar with the matter, raising the question of whether Mr. Gates would have time to do that while serving as board chairman and continuinh his extensive philanthropic work.
Satya has said that he wants Bill Gates as close advisor for being successful in his new role.
After the board’s search committee recommended Mr. Nadella, he told the board that a bigger role for Mr. Gates as a close adviser is “what I need to be successful,” the person familiar with the matter said.
Microsoft board is more keen on making lead Microsoft director John W. Thompson as chairman, but even there is no uniform agreement on replacing Bill Gates as chairman.
One possibility being considered is to name lead Microsoft director John W. Thompson as chairman, several people said. Mr. Thompson is a former chief executive of software firm Symantec Corp.
Source: WSJ
