Indian-origin executive vice president of Microsoft's Cloud group, Satya Nadella is reportedly said to be closer at grabbing the top position at the company as current CEO Steve Ballmer heads towards his retirement.
A report by Bloomberg has revealed that Microsoft is preparing to officially announce Nadella as Ballmer's replacement.
According to Cnet, it is also said that the company board might decide to replace Bill Gates as chairman.
Nadella currently heads Microsoft's cloud computing, which powers Office 365, Bing, SkyDrive, Xbox Live, Skype, Dynamics, and enterprises around the world, and if chosen as the next chief, would become only the third CEO in Microsoft's 38-year history.
Meanwhile, John Thompson, Microsoft's lead independent director, who is also heading the search committee for Ballmer replacement, is being considered as a possible chairman to replace Gates.
Microsoft's potential list for Ballmer replacements included Skype head Tony Bates, Thompson, Ford CEO Alan Mulally, and Ericsson head Hans Vestberg.
However, Vestberg and Mulally had officially dismissed the rumours of being potential candidates.
The report said that Microsoft denied commenting on finalising Nadella's candidature for the post.