Hot on the heels on rumors that Microsoft may name its new CEO sometime in the next week, a new story from Bloomberg claims that the company's board of directors is also in discussions on replacing company co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates as chairman.
The story, citing unnamed sources, claims that Microsoft’s lead independent director John Thompson could succeed Gates as chairman. However, the report adds that Gates will still have an active role in Microsoft's business. While he has said repeatedly he has no plans to return to Microsoft on a full time basis, Gates has indicated he will be highly involved with helping whomever the company picked as its new leader. Bloomberg also repeated earlier rumors that Satya Nadella, who currently leads Microsoft's cloud services division, is the most likely to take over as CEO.
In August, Steve Ballmer announced his plans to retire as CEO, and recent rumors suggest that when a replacement is named, Ballmer will also leave his position as a company director. Both Gates and Ballmer will still own a lot of Microsoft stock, although Gates has been slowly selling off his shares in the company for the past several years.
Source: Bloomberg | Image via Microsoft
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