Satya Nadella is Microsoft's new CEO: the full story

Stephen Elop may not be Microsoft's new CEO, but the former head of Nokia is not going unrewarded for bringing the phone manufacturer into the Microsoft fold. According to an internal memo, Elop will replace Julie Larson-Green as the head of Microsoft's Devices and Studios business, putting him in charge of Xbox, Microsoft Surface, and Microsoft's game development efforts, in addition to the new cellular handset business. A Microsoft rep tells us that Elop had been slated to take over Devices and Studios ever since the Nokia acquisition, but originally Larson-Green would have stayed with the team as a subordinate.

Instead, Larson-Green is taking on a new role: she's becoming the Chief Experience Officer for the company's Applications and Services group, managing the look and feel of products like Bing, Office, and Skype.

A new CEO typically means a great deal of upheaval and uncertainty for a company, but Microsoft's hardware partners appear confident its appointment of Satya Nadella will lead to change for the better. Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing leads a charge of congratulatory comments by expressing his company's "tremendous confidence in Satya's expertise."

Michael Dell is similarly effusive in his appraisal of the new man in charge, describing him as an "outstanding choice." Notably, Dell's comments begin with an expression of joy that Microsoft has concluded its CEO search. As much change as Nadella may or may not bring to the software giant, Microsoft's future path is now much easier to forecast with Ballmer's successor in place. And that might be the most important aspect to this executive change for all of Microsoft's PC hardware partners.

Microsoft named its third CEO in its entire 38-year history today: Satya Nadella. After Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Nadella faces the challenge of running a company that has 16 different billion-dollar businesses and will soon have 130,000 employees thanks to its acquisition of Nokia. That’s not just a huge challenge, it’s also a question of focus and strategy for Nadella. But he won’t be alone: Microsoft co-founder and former chairman Bill Gates has "stepped up" to work with Nadella as a "technology advisor," a role where he’ll be working with Microsoft’s various business groups on future products. It’s a surprise move that sees Gates relinquish his role as chairman of the board, but it also means the father of Microsoft will be spending a lot more time at the company. It’s a historic day for the software giant and its empire of employees, but what does a Nadella–Gates combo mean for Microsoft?

While Nadella has been working at Microsoft for 22 years, he has spent the majority of his time building products that don’t often make the headlines. This might not make him an obvious choice to outsiders, but insiders have seen him transform Microsoft’s server business to focus on the cloud in areas that are increasingly important for businesses and the enterprise. In an unusual internal CEO "interview," Nadella provided some early hints at his own strategy for Microsoft going forward: mobile and cloud first. "Everything is becoming digital and software driven," says Nadella.

Microsoft announced its third CEO in the company's 38-year history today. Satya Nadella succeeds Steve Ballmer and takes over immediately with a focus on "cloud and mobile first." While the trio of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella have been busy with today's announcement, they took some time out today to stand on stage together and address more than 100,000 Microsoft employees.

Without much warning or fanfare (rumors notwithstanding), Microsoft this morning announced that Satya Nadella will replace Steve Ballmer as its new CEO — effective immediately. But that's not all. Founder Bill Gates is stepping down from his role as Chairman and will "substantially increase time" at the company as a technology adviser.

Clearly lots to digest. Who is Nadella? Can he be as energetic as Ballmer? What will Gates do? And what is the future of Microsoft? The company is holding a webcast at 12PM PT / 3PM ET today. Join us after that for The Verge Live — with Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and our resident Microsoft expert Tom Warren. (Time zones)

It's official, Satya Nadella is Microsoft's next CEO, and on his first day on the job he's sent a letter to the whole staff. In the letter, Nadella speaks of what he thinks makes Microsoft a great company, and where he thinks it can go in the future. He warns that "While we have seen great success, we are hungry to do more. Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation." Nadella also lays out a bit of his plan for the company. He mentions that he requested Bill Gates to help out more than he has in the past few years, and perhaps more importantly, he speaks generally of focusing the company on what it does best. He says "We need to prioritize innovation that is centered on our core value of empowering users and organizations to 'do more.'" You can read the letter in its entirety below.

The Verge Live on Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella

Bill Gates is taking on a bigger role at Microsoft. He's stepping down from his position as chairman today and will take up the role of technology advisor to Microsoft's new CEO, Satya Nadella. "I'm thrilled that Satya has asked me to step up, substantially increasing the time that I spend at the company," Gates says in a video discussing Nadella's new role. "I'll have over a third of my time available to meet with product groups, and it'll be fun to define this next round of products working together."

Though Gates has regularly stated that he'd prefer to spend more of his time working on philanthropic projects than Microsoft, Nadella is said to have requested Gates' assistance while stepping into his new role. Gates says that Nadella has the right background to lead Microsoft forward, explaining that Microsoft has large opportunities ahead of it in mobile and cloud computing — the latter an area that Nadella has plenty of experience in. "The opportunity for Microsoft is greater than ever before," Gates says.