After a seemingly endless stream of rumors, Microsoft has officialy and finally named Satya Nadella as the new Chief Executive Officer and Steve Ballmer's successor. Nadella previously held the position of Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group and will be the company's third CEO.

The Microsoft Board of Directors has appointed Satya Nadella as CEO of the company and a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. Satya Nadella was with the company from 1992, and has, according to Microsoft's official statement, spearheaded major strategy and techical shifts across the company's portfolio of products and services, mostly with focus on cloud.

Bill Gates, who was also appointed as the Fouunder and Technology Advisor to the Board of Directors in order to devote more time to the company, is one of the first to congratulate and welcome Satya Nadella as the new Microsoft CEO in a video which you can see below.

Former CEO Steve Ballmer said: "Having worked with him for more than 20 years, I know that Satya is the right leader at the right time for Microsoft. I've had the distinct privilege of working with the most talented employees and senior leadership team in the industry, and I know their passion and hunger for greatness will only grow stronger under Satya's leadership."

In his official comment, Satya Nadella said that ""Microsoft is one of those rare companies to have truly revolutionized the world through technology, and I couldn't be more honored to have been chosen to lead the company. The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster and continue to transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly."

Microsoft has been struggling lately and hopefully both Satya Nadella as the new CEO and Bill Gates as the "new" Founder and Technology Advisor, will manage to push the company in the right direction.