Despite claims last week originaly reported by Bloomberg that Satya Nadella may be Steve Ballmer’s replacement for the CEO position at Microsoft, it has now emerged that the frontrunner may actually be Sundar Pichai, who is the executive for Google Chrome and Apps.
SiliconANGLE reported that the 42-year-old is the "top choice" for the head position and that negotiations for his employment are in full swing.
"Many industry insiders like Satya Nadella for CEO because of his enterprise and cloud background. However, Sundar Pichai is the leading external candidate and is in discussions with the hiring committee," John Furrier, founder of the blog SiliconAngle.com, said in a blog post.
Pichai came to the spotlight when he was appointed head of Google’s Android division last year. Since then, however, he has moved up to the position of senior Vice President of Android, Chrome and Apps and Google.
Pichai has a bachelors degree in Technology from IIT-Kharagpur, a Master’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
"Microsoft could really move the ball down the field with Sundar Pichai in creating a new open operating system model for cloud, mobile and social," Dave Vellante, chief analyst at Wikibon, was quoted as saying in the report.
Microsoft is set to announce the new CEO, only the company’s third in its history after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, some time this week.
