Microsoft Names Cloud Chief Satya Nadella CEO

(RTTNews) - Software giant Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) on Tuesday named its cloud chief Satya Nadella as the new chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately.

This ends a five-month search after Steve Ballmer in late August announced his decision to retire within the next 12 months or when a successor is named.

Nadella becomes the third CEO in Mocrosoft's 38-year history after Founder Bill Gates and Ballmer.

"During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella. Satya is a proven leader with hard-core engineering skills, business vision and the ability to bring people together. His vision for how technology will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Microsoft needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth," Gates said in a statement.

The CEO search kicked off when Ballmer announced his departure in an emotional speech to employees in late August.

As the hunt intensified to find a suitable successor to Ballmer, the names of a number of internal and high-profile external candidates popped up.

The other internal candidates in the race were reportedly former Skye CEO and current Microsoft Business Development Chief Tony Bates, former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner as well as Yammer's founder and CEO David Sacks.

Outsiders being considered for the top job to head the World's largest software company were Google, Inc.'s (GOOG) Android Head Sundar Pichai, Ericsson AB CEO Hans Vestberg, Ford Motor Co. (F) CEO Alan Mulally, and Qualcomm, Inc.'s (QCOM) COO Steve Mollenkopf, who was then promoted to CEO.

The four member CEO search committee was led by Microsoft's lead independent director and former IBM executive John Thompson, who has also been named to assume a new role as Chairman of Board of Directors and remain an independent director on the Board. He succeeds Gates, who now steps up to a new role as founder and technology adviser.

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 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.

Nadella was most recently the executive vice president of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group. He joined the company in 1992 and spearheaded its move to the cloud and the development of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world supporting Bing, Xbox, Office and other services.

"Having worked with him for more than 20 years, I know that Satya is the right leader at the right time for Microsoft. I've had the distinct privilege of working with the most talented employees and senior leadership team in the industry, and I know their passion and hunger for greatness will only grow stronger under Satya's leadership," Ballmer stated.

In Tuesday's regular trading session, MSFT is currently trading at $36.80, up $0.32 or 0.88% on a volume of 7.81 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $27.10 to $38.98.