Sundar Pichai vs Satya Nadella: Two Indians in the running for the Microsoft CEO post

[mmadhankumar]

Contrary to the Bloomberg report which suggested that Indian-American Satya Nadella may replace long-time Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer as he steps down, a new report has emerged saying that Google's Andorid head Sundar Pichai is the front-runner for the CEO job at Microsoft.

Sundar Pichai, the 42-year-old head executive for Google Chrome and Apps, is the "top choice" for the position of Microsoft CEO and negotiations with him are on in full swing, reported SiliconANGLE, a media website that focusses on the technology industry. "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.

Indian-origin Sundar Pichai, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, caught media attention in India when he was named as the new head of Google's Android division, making him one of the most powerful executives at the Internet giant, last year. Sundar Pichai is currently the senior Vice President of Android, Chrome and Apps at Google.

Pichai's success with the Chrome browser during the past four years has helped Google generate more revenue. He has a Bachelor's degree in Technology from IIT-Kharagpur, holds an 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.

On the other hand, Bloomberg in its recent report had said that Microsoft was poised to take the route of least risk and tap rising internal star Satya Nadella for the job.


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