Ballmer announced his resignation in August this year and it looks like a successor could be established earlier than the 12 months initially expected.
Sources close to the situation said that John Donahoe, CEO at eBay, has declined to be considered but other candidates include Alan Mulally, CEO at Ford Motor Co., and Stephen Elop, former CEO at Nokia Corp.
In its 38 years of operation, Microsoft has only had two CEO’s, industry veteran Bill Gates and Ballmer, and the special board commissioned to replace Ballmer has reportedly called for advice from Charles Giancarlo, former executive at Cisco Systems.
Microsoft is overhauling its strategy to focus on devices on services and the need for a new CEO, capable of managing such a transition, is crucial if the company is to compete with rivals such as Apple and Google.
