The scales are tipped in favor of Satya Nadella, head of Microsoft's Cloud Services, in the race for the third chief for Microsoft. The other person in the running is, Sundar Pichai, vice president of Android and Google Apps.
Both the candidates are of Indian -origin.
Reports say that insider Nadella with 22 years at the company may be the most likely candidate. Described as slightly reticent, but technically strong, colleagues say he is the brightest brains at Microsoft.
Ravi Venkatesan, former chairman of Microsoft India, said to Economic Times "Nadella's strength lies in building relationships."
Microsoft has posted the best quarter results in recent times, which according to analysts is a point in favor of hiring an insider. Staten James, vice president & principal analyst Forrester research said in a recent interview to Economic Times that the culture of Microsoft is different and someone from outside would take time to settle and bring about change.
Nadella, 45, joined Microsoft in 1992 and worked in the servers division. He then moved to software, online, R&D, advertising and at the moment is heading the cloud services division. He has experience in several departments of the company and can coalesce them well.
The search for a new CEO for Microsoft kicked off after Steve Ballmer announced in August that he was looking to retire in the next 12 months.
Two other insiders, strategy head Tony Bates and former Microsoft exec Stephen Elop, were in the running according to reports.
Earlier reports said that Ford CEO Allan Mullaly rejected an offer to join the company as its head.
