Vestberg under consideration for Microsoft job

Ericsson’s incumbent CEO, Hans Vestberg is being considered as the possible successor to Steve Ballmer at Microsoft, according to a news report.

Citing people briefed on the head-hunting efforts, Microsoft’s board is actively considering the Ericsson boss to head up the US software giant.

Vestberg, 48, joined Ericsson in 1988 and was its CFO between 2007-9, before taking over as CEO in 2010.

His key achievements include having been able to sell off the half of the Sony-Ericsson joint venture to Sony and beef up the company’s managed services business.

Nokia’s former CEO, Stephen Elop, as well as Microsoft’s head of cloud computing, Satya Nadella are also still under consideration, the sources added on a condition of anonymity.

Microsoft is aiming to complete the search in the early part of this year, which would potentially give the new CEO a short time to settle in ahead of the company’s next major software release.

Last August Ballmer announced that he would retire just as soon as the company found his successor. The decision came after a major reorganisation that aimed to turn Microsoft into a "devices and services" company.