Ford CEO Alan Mulally has been at or near the top of the candidate pool to take over as Microsoft"s next CEO for the past few months, but a new report now claims that his front runner position might be in jeopardy, thanks in part to some public remarks that were made last week by Ford director Edsel Ford II.
When asked in a TV interview about the status of Mulally as CEO of Ford, Edsel Ford II replied, "Frankly, he has told us that his plan is to stay with Ford through the end of 2014." That statement, combined with Mulally"s own non-denial comments, sent Microsoft stock down on Friday. Now a new report from AllThingD, citing unnamed sources in Microsoft, claims that those quotes made it look like Mulally was playing both sides of the fence and that apparently didn"t please Microsoft"s directors.
In addition, the report claims that there is also some question as to how long Mulally would stay at Microsoft if he got the CEO job. Finally, there"s reportedly a new feeling that any new CEO for the company should have some technology experience behind him.
So who might that person be? AllThingsD states that there is one person who has not been named publicly yet but could be in the running as a dark horse candidate. The article quotes the unnamed source as saying he (yes, it"s a male) is "in tech, someone folks are excited about, but not a done deal.". The article"s writer offers up the idea that the candidate could be VMWare CEO Patrick Gelsinger, but that"s pure speculation.
Source: AllThingsD | Image via Ford