"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." - Peter Drucker
After much speculation in the last few months, it appears that Microsoft (MSFT) has settled on a leader to replace CEO Steven Ballmer after his 13 years of the helm.
The company has decided to promote from within and will name Satya Nadella as its new CEO sometime next week according to several sources. Mr. Nadella is currently the company's server/cloud product chief. His division accounted for ~65% of the company's profit in its last quarter.
I believe this is a solid pick as do investors, it seems, as the stock rose when word leaked out Friday despite the sell-off in the overall market. The products within Mr. Nadella's portfolio are some of the fastest growth engines for the company.
It appears Mr. Ballmer will leave the company and the board shortly. His tenure will go down as a mixed one. Over the last decade, the company has ~tripled earnings and revenues and established a solid dividend payout, but the stock has gone nowhere under his leadership.
Microsoft missed the transition to mobile and the importance of social media but has built an impressive 'cloud' portfolio which hopefully Mr. Nadella can more effectively highlight to the investment community than his soon to be predecessor.
No comments:
Post a Comment