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All four people charged with finding Microsoft a new CEO are men. All but two of its nine board members are men, and nearly 80 percent of its U.S. employees are male. The only two CEOs in Microsoft's history, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, have been men. Microsoft’s gender imbalance -- skewed, but standard for the technology industry -- suggests there's plenty of room for more female leaders at the top of the world's third most-valuable tech firm. So when Ballmer, Microsoft's current CEO, resigns next year, what’s the likelihood a woman might get the top job? Though industry analysts agree Microsoft should hire the most qualified candidate, regardless of gender, some argue that appointing a woman as Ballmer's successor could potentially bring ...

S martphone manufacturer Nokia recently sold its devices and services unit to Microsoft for $7.2 billion. Before that deal, though, it seems like the Finnish company may have thought of crossing the fence to Google’s Android operating system sometime after late 2014, according to the New York Times . While Microsoft and Nokia have had a long, well-knit bond over the Windows Phone-based Lumia series, new evidence now shows that a Nokia Lumia Android phone was being considered, and prototypes were also reportedly made by the company. Nokia supposedly had a team working on bringing Android to its Lumia handsets well before the Microsoft deal took place. The source has stated that Microsoft executives were also aware about the existence of this project. Nokia’s plan to shift operating systems is not such a surprising one. Most smartphone companies often have alternatives in mind in case they need to shift the operating system or iron out better deals with software...