Microsoft CEO hunt: Mulally to lead Ford 'through 2014'

Top Ford director says Mulally will stay at the car maker throughout next year, apparently ruling him out of top Microsoft job

Ford's board director Edsel Ford has seemingly ruled the car maker's chief executive Alan Mulally out of the running to become Microsoft's chief executive by claiming he will stay at Ford throughout next year.

After the software giant's current chief exec Steve Ballmer announced his imminent retirement back in the summer, Mulally emerged as the rumoured frontrunner to replace him, according to sources close to the process. Other contenders such as current Skype boss Tony Bates, Nokia leader Stephen Elop and cloud and enterprise boss Satya Nadella have also been closely linked to the role.

But Ford – the great-grandson of Henry Ford – threw a spanner in the works by telling Bloomberg that there was "no change to the plan" of Mulally leading the company and added: "He is staying through the end of 2014 and that's all I know."

The most recent theory that emerged about Microsoft's hunt for Ballmer's successor was that Mulally would be appointed as an interim chief executive and would work with someone such as Nadella to prime them to hold the position long term, but Ford's comments seem to disprove this theory.