Nadella wins, knocking out Ballmer.
Meet the newest CEO of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Satya Nadella. A seasoned fighter from Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group, Mr. Nadella disarms opponents with an unassuming, humble style. Left standing after knocking out all opponents in a six-month long CEO cage-match, Nadella won his latest bout by unanimous decision, and is now champion of Microsoft. With a new trainer named Bill Gates to mentor and show him the rope-a-dopes, the future looks bright.
Future bouts may pose a challenge though, with former heavyweight champ Steve Ballmer around watching his every move. Ballmer -- scowling of mien and wearing a rough demeanor -- may easily decide to fight dirty in the boardroom. But one thing is always a sure win: bloggers will be watching each fight live on pay-per-view.
In IT Blogwatch, bloggers dance like butterflies and sting like bees.
Filling in for our humble blogwatcher Richi Jennings, is a humbler Stephen Glasskeys.
One thing is certain, Brad Chacos can count to ten:
At long last, after much searching, a flood of whispered rumors, and more than a little journalistic hand-wringing, Microsoft has found its new CEO: Satya Nadella....
Unless you're a diehard Microsoft observer, the name probably doesn't ring a bell. ... So who is the man who now becomes Microsoft's guiding light? Here are the 10 most important things you need to know about Satya Nadella. MORE
We don't get fooled again, asserts Juan Carlos Perez:
Meet the new guy: He sounds just like the old guy....
In his first public comments as Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella spoke in a way that very closely resembled his predecessor, Steve Ballmer....
Though Nadella's stage demeanor appeared more urbane than that of Ballmer, whose manic exhortations...were notorious, the basic message was the same. In a nutshell: Microsoft is morphing its focus from providing packaged software to providing devices and cloud services, so it must innovate with a strategy that places mobile and cloud first. MORE
Walking X-File Gregg Keizer steps down, yet remains on board:
Microsoft today said that co-founder Bill Gates will step down as chairman of the board to spend his time with the company advising the new CEO, Satya Nadella....
The change is historic. ... Gates has been Microsoft's one and only chairman....
Gates' new title will be "Founder and Technology Advisor," and he will remain on the board of directors, Microsoft said Tuesday. In his place as chairman, Microsoft has selected John Thompson, a former CEO of security firm Symantec. MORE
Straight from Seattle Slew's mouth:
REDMOND, Wash. - Feb. 4, 2014 - Microsoft Corp. today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Satya Nadella as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors effective immediately....
"During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella," said Bill Gates, Microsoft's Founder and Member of the Board of Directors. "Satya is a proven leader with hard-core engineering skills, business vision and the ability to bring people together. His vision for how technology will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Microsoft needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth." MORE
And Martyn Williams gets a heck of pay bump:
Satya Nadella will get $1.2 million in salary for his first year as CEO of Microsoft, the company said Tuesday....
That's a substantial jump on his previous salary of $675,000 and considerably more than the $700,000 earned by former CEO Steve Ballmer in Microsoft's previous financial year....
In addition to the salary, Nadella, who is 46, will be eligible for a cash bonus of up to $3.6 million, dependent on Microsoft's business performance. He'll also get an additional stock award of $13.2 million starting in Microsoft's 2015 fiscal year. MORE
Preston Gralla is in the wrong place at the wrong time:
Some may see hope for Microsoft in Bill Gates leaving his role as chairman of Microsoft's board to take on a new position as technology advisor. But as brilliant as Gates is, he's the wrong person at the wrong time....
In a video about his new position and Nadella's appointment, Gates said he'll be spending one-third of his time meeting with product groups, and that he'll be having a role in defining new products and strategies....
This is not a good thing. Gates certainly did a remarkable job in building Microsoft. But many of Microsoft's woes had their seeds sown under Gates' leadership, especially ones related to mobile....
Back in 2001...Microsoft announced its Tablet PC. [Gates'] vision was thoroughly off the mark: It was a full-blown computer in tablet form, costing thousands of dollars and running Windows. No one wanted one....
Similarly, under Gates Microsoft had a smartphone operating system years before the iPhone. Released in 2000, it was called Windows Mobile. Microsoft released iteration after iteration of it. Once again, when Apple released the iPhone...Microsoft was left behind. MORE
Humble Alex Wilhelm does all the hard lifting:
While Nadella was essentially the unanimous choice of those outside the company -- your humble servant included -- his clippings have become too nice. Let's take a moment instead to focus on what could go wrong for the new CEO....
To be plain, Nadella's new role is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, jobs in technology. Microsoft is still pulling its re-org together at the same time it is changing its business model. This puts Nadella in the helm partway through two key and coinciding changes to the company. MORE
Meanwhile, Salvador Rodriguez goes mockingbird watching:
Microsoft named Satya Nadella its new CEO on Tuesday, causing numerous Twitter parody accounts to immediately spring up. But one account is fooling users into believing it could be the official Nadella account....
Nadella is stepping up from his role as the president of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group to become the third CEO of the tech giant. On Twitter, Nadella can be found on @satyanadella, but he hasn't tweeted since the summer of 2010....
His impostor, however, has been quite busy Tuesday morning tweeting from @satyanadeiia, which is stylized with two capital letter "I's" to look like the "l's" in Nadella's last name. On Twitter, the two handles look identical, and that's causing confusion for some on the social network. MORE
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