Well the general strategy that SteveB has been preaching the past year is the "devices and services" strategy as well as consolidating Microsoft into functional

Well the general strategy that SteveB has been preaching the past year is the "devices and services" strategy as well as consolidating Microsoft into functional units. And given Microsoft's push towards services to meet their bottom-line, cloud/services is likely their target. I think the best way to look at it is to start off by looking at Microsoft's acquisitions in the psat 10-15 (20?) years and see which former CEOs have integrated well within Microsoft. Consider that Microsoft doesn't even have a current Chief Software Architect anymore. I'm not particularly familiar with Microsoft's portfolio of companies, but perhaps someone like the former President of Skype (Tony Bates) would be someone they would put into the CEO position.