{Update Feb 4th, 2014:  Microsoft has selected Satya Nadella as CEO; Bill Gates steps down as Chairman; Steve Ballmer relinquishes post as CEO.}

BREAKING:  SiliconANGLE has confirmed that Sundar Pichai is the top choice for the CEO position of Microsoft according to sources close to the hiring team.  According to sources, negotiations are in full swing with Pichai.

This data obtained by SiliconANGLE is new information to the recent Bloomberg report that Satya Nadella is considered the top choice. Many industry insiders like Satya Nadella for CEO because of his enterprise and cloud background.  However,  Sundar Pichai is the leading external candidate and is in discussions with the hiring committee.

Pichai is the head executive for Google Chrome and Apps and has been a force driving Android integration across the company.  He is highly regarded as a leading executive within Google and was rumored to be in the running for leading jobs at Twitter. It was reported that Google paid Pichai $50 million to stay at Google.

“Microsoft could really move the ball down the field with Sundar Pichai in creating a new open operating system model for cloud, mobile, and social” according to Dave Vellante, chief analyst at Wikibon. “The market has been looking for a CEO who can balance the role of leading the enterprise transformation while keeping that consumer momentum with xBox and reboot mobile.  Pichai is the total package of technology leadership and business acumen.”

Check back here for update as this story develops.

SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE co-host Jeff Kelly interviewed Satya Nadella last year in Silicon Valley. See the entire segment below.

Video Interview on SiliconANGLE with Satay Nadella at Stanford.