Microsoft reportedly considering Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg for top job

Himanshu Arora

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microsoft ericsson ceo hans vestberg

Microsoft is considering Ericsson AB Chief Executive Officer Hans Vestberg as a possible successor to exiting CEO Steve Ballmer, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed sources close to the matter. The report further says that Microsoft cloud-computing chief Satya Nadella and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop are also on the list.

The 48-year-old swede, who joined Ericsson in 1988, has been with the company for more than 25 years. He has worked in almost every part of the company, except research and development, and has held management positions at Ericsson in US, Brazil, China and Mexico. He was the company's Chief Financial Officer from 2007 to 2009, before he became CEO in 2010.

The report comes a week after Ford CEO Allan Mulally pulled out of the CEO race stating that he plans to stay with the automaker through 2014. Last December, Qualcomm's Steve Mollenkopf opted out of the race after he was promoted as CEO of said company.

Microsoft's main software business is struggling and the company has had limited success in fast emerging markets like tablets and smartphones. This, coupled with the presence of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer on the board, will make sure that it will be a less independent and a tough job ahead for any new CEO.

Both Microsoft and Ericsson declined to comment on the report.

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Cool a CEO that will slow everything down but speed up the windows phone area!
Seriously if you want a good CEO for the job get one that has experience with the big areas that microsoft is in AKA OS.

If I was the one choosing people for the job I couldnt see the company working correctly with a CEO that has next to zero experience in the area that my companys revenue mainly comes from which is for microsoft the OS market and not the phone OS market lol
 
In my opinion he is within range of an ideal age for candidacy. It doesn't surprise me, that they would consider someone with a background in phones. It is the one area they seem to have issues gaining ground in sales. It makes more sense than selecting someone from Ford. And Ford is my choice of vehicle manufacturers, and I still wouldn't have chosen someone from Ford. I'm glad Alan Mulally stepped down from candidacy. Even though Hans Vestberg may not be a perfect candidate, he makes more sense than Alan Mulally. That is from an outside perspective such as most of us TechSpot readers.
 
Just bring back Bill Gates and be done with it.

Actually the business practices of the Bill Gates era is what got them into this mess in the first place. (and the Bork decision that followed)

While MS is arguably no longer a monopoly as there are now a number of viable alternatives to their "one trick pony" (Windows/Office) any new CEO's hands would be "tied" with Balmer and Gates remaining on the board so its rather doubtful that any true or real innovation will ever come out of Redmond.
 
Offer me the role I'll do a much better job then what the prior CEO failed to do. I would like to clean-up the code and offer Windows 7 SP2 to current users of Windows 7 desktop, laptop and netbook. Fix the other issues that they don't fix. Tablet OS should be for tablets not mix both systems with all the rest. Windows 7 by default the tablet option is enabled. So much improvements to this computer just go so corrupted since the early 80's.
 
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