Satya Nadella to reportedly replace Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Nadella, 46, currently heads the company's Cloud & Enterprise division

Satya Nadella (Microsoft)

The five-month search for Steve Ballmer’s replacement as CEO of Microsoft may be over, with reports suggesting that Satya Nadella – currently the executive vice president of the company’s Cloud & Enterprise group – could be next to take the top job.

Since Ballmer announced last year that he would be retiring there have been plenty of rumours as to who would take charge next, with proposed candidates including Ford Ceo Allan Mulally and ex-Nokia CEO Stephen Elop.

Tech site Re/Code and Bloomberg have both reported that Nadella, 46, will become Microsoft’s third CEO, also suggesting that founder Bill Gates could vacate his role as chairman, a position he has kept since 1981.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in tearful Dirty Dancing farewell to staff

Gates co-founded the business in 1975 and stepped down from the role of CEO in 2000. He has since devoted his time to philanthropic work through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, though as a globally recognised and respected figure he is arguably still one of the company’s greatest assets.

In October 2013 it was suggested that investors wanted Gates to step down from the board of the company, with three anonymous shareholders voicing concerns that he could obstruct future changes to the company.

Microsoft latest earnings report beat investors’ expectations with record revenues of $24.5bn (£14.7bn) for the October-December quarter, up 14% from the previous three months. Despite this, the company’s interests in tablets (the Microsoft Surface) and smartphones (in the shape of Windows Phone) have failed to amass any significant market share.

These would be the most important challenges for Nadella, who has so far had success building up Microsoft’s presence in the cloud. Both Windows Azure (Microsoft's cloud hosting solution) and Office 365 (a subscription service for Office) have prospered under Nadella's leadership, becoming two of the company’s fastest growing products.

Whether this has given him the necessary vision to lead Microsoft's struggling hardware businesses is another matter. The company is expected to give more details regarding the appointment next week