India's Satya Nadella Joins Mulally As Lead Contenders For Microsoft Top Job

(RTTNews) - Indian-origin cloud chief Satya Nadella has joined Ford Motor Co. (F) CEO Alan Mulally as lead contenderd for the top job at software giant Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), according to media reports on Saturday. Microsoft initially was expecting to have a new CEO in place by year end, but it will reportedly be pushed back to early 2014.

If Nadella wins the race, he will be the first Indian to head the World's largest software company and only its third CEO after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

As the hunt intensifies to find a suitable successor to Ballmer, it is seen that other internal candidates like former Skye CEO and current Microsoft Business Development Chief Tony Bates as well as former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop are unlikely to be offered the top job.

Others with an outside chance are Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) CEO John Michael Lawrie, former Windows Chief Steven Sinofsky, and former Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR) CEO Kevin Johnson.

The CEO search kicked off about three months ago after Ballmer bid farewell to employees in his one hour emotional speech at his final company meeting as CEO and announced his decision to retire within the next 12 months.

However, Ballmer is expected to continue to lead the company through the next steps of its transformation to a devices and services company until a successor is chosen.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft initiated the search process for a new CEO after Ballmer announced his intention in late August, with its board appointing a special committee to take the process forward.

Lead independent director and former IBM executive John Thompson heads the four member search committee, with Gates also being a part of it. The committee is working with executive recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. (HSII).

Ballmer, who joined Microsoft in June 1980, was at the helm of the company for more than 13 years since January 2000. He was the first business manager to be hired by Microsoft's founder Gates. He took over authority of the company from Gates, who then moved on as chairman and retained control of the "technological vision" as chief software architect.

MSFT closed Thursday's regular trading session at $38.13, up $0.53 or 1.41% on a volume of 22.09 million shares.