Bangalore: The software giant Microsoft has reportedly narrowed its search for a new CEO to the five people. The new narrowed list includes the internal candidates— Satya Nadella, chief of company’s cloud and enterprise and Tony Bates, former Skype CEO, now responsible for company’s business development. The two external candidates include the Ford CEO Alan Mullay and the former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. The other suggested names have been Mike Lawrie, the CEO of Computer Sciences, with Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg a long shot, reports Reuters.

Microsoft initially had a list of 40 identified people and may need a few more months to fix on the new CEO. And information from trusted sources said Microsoft is searching for its new head in diversified fields including life sciences and consumers and refused to provide any information on their considered candidates.

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