Microsoft Corp named Satya Nadella its CEO, tapping an insider steeped in business technology to speed a turnaround at a software maker that helped usher in the personal-computing age, only to be left behind as the world shifted toward the Web and mobile devices. Nadella, 46, will replace Steve Ballmer effective immediately after a five-month search, Microsoft said in a statement on Tuesday. Bill Gates, the company’s first CEO, will step aside as chairman and devote more time to product development while remaining on the board and running his philanthropic foundation. John Thompson, the director who led the CEO search, becomes chairman.
The new CEO, who was born in India and joined Microsoft in 1992, takes over at a critical juncture. Consumers and businesses are shunning PCs in favour of handheld devices made by rivals, sapping demand for Microsoft’s flagship products. Besides playing catch-up to the likes of Apple and Google, Nadella will be tasked with completing strategy changes, begun by Ballmer last year. That includes the $7.2-billion integration of Nokia’s handset unit and turning Microsoft into a provider of services and hardware.
One of the best that the East had to offer was embraced by the West on Tuesday, and back home there are great expectations that the winds of change will blow here as well.
In India, where Microsoft established a base two years before Nadella joined the company, the reaction was both ecstatic and wary. The country’s technology leaders were proud of his achievement, but at the Indian unit of Nokia (which Microsoft has bought), there was concern about the future because of the Finnish company’s tax dispute with the Centre.
No comments:
Post a Comment