Microsoft Corp is in the process of narrowing down the candidates list for the CEO post as it expects to hire a successor for its current CEO Steve Ballmer by this year end.
Sources close to the matter have informed Bloomberg that the board is planning to narrow down choices in the preliminary interviews for the CEO candidature. The board has declined to consider a number of candidates including eBay CEO John Donahoe.
Candidates who are being currently considered includes Alan Mulally, Ford Motors CEO, Stephen Elop, former Nokia CEO, Paul Maritz, CEO of cloud venture Pivotal, business development and Tony Bates, evangelism chief Microsoft.
The board in this regard has solicited advice from Silicon Valley veterans like Charles Giancarlo, who is a former Cisco Systems Inc. executive and present managing director at private-equity firm Silver Lake.
Negotiations over compensation and the possible departure of the candidate from their current company will determine the timing of the hire. This follows the present CEO Ballmer’s retirement announcement which was made sometime earlier this year.
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer have been the only two Microsoft CEOs in the company’s 38-year old history. Ballmer who took over the Redmond, Washington-based company in 2000 announced in August his retirement plans within a year.
