Microsoft has chosen its next CEO and may remove Bill Gates as chairman, Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg says Microsoft's next CEO will be Satya Nadella, an executive vice president at the company. Nadella is in charge of Microsoft's lucrative cloud and enterprise group.

The news backs up an earlier report from Recode's Kara Swisher that Microsoft will pick Nadella as its CEO.

Nadella has been at Microsoft for 20 years and his name has been consistently floated around as one of the top internal candidates for the CEO job.

Before Microsoft's recent executive reorganization, Nadella was in charge of the company's server and tools business. He also worked in research and development for online services and was vice president of the business division.

It would make sense if Gates stepped down as chairman of the board. In theory, Microsoft's new CEO probably wouldn't want two of his or her predecessors (Gates and current CEO Steve Ballmer) watching everything from the board.

Microsoft began its CEO search in August 2013, when Ballmer announced he planned to retire within a year. Since then, people began throwing around several names for Ballmer's replacement, including Ford CEO Alan Mulally. Mulally later came out and publicly stated he would not take the CEO job at Microsoft. Other potential internal candidates were Tony Bates, VP of business development, and Stephen Elop, the former CEO of Nokia who joined the company after it sold to Microsoft.

Early reactions to the potential Nadella appointment seem to be pretty positive. Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud storage startup Box, tweeted: "Satya is a very strong pick for CEO. [He] understands how to build platforms, gets the cloud, and has a solid vision for the future."

【新闻快讯】

据彭博社报道，有知情人士透露，微软董事会正在就提名内部高管、企业及云业务负责人萨蒂亚·纳德拉（Satya Nadella）为公司下一任CEO进行筹备。同时，董事会也在就替换比尔·盖茨（Bill Gates）董事长职位的事宜开展讨论。

该名知情人士指出，董事会目前在考虑的一位董事长人选是公司当下独立董事约翰·汤普森（John Thompson）。盖茨未来或仍会在微软管理层中担任重要角色，但这将取决于董事会及新CEO的意向。

纳德拉大约从数周前开始在CEO的竞争中显现优势。但知情人士也指出，对其的最终提名方案如今尚未完成。