Alan Mulally, the man who has led Ford Motor Co's turnaround from near financial ruin, continues to keep mum on whether he has talked to Microsoft about the CEO job at the software giant.
Ford is set to report its fifth-straight profitable year under Mulally. The No. 2 US automaker reported a $1.3 billion third-quarter net profit.
He has held the top post since 2006, when he was hired from aviation giant Boeing to rescue the company. Mulally, 68, repeated that there's no change in Ford's plan for him to stay as CEO through the end of 2014.
"We don't comment on the speculation," he said on Thursday in response to a question from The Associated Press on the company's third-quarter earnings conference call.
Mulally said nothing has changed since last November, when Ford announced that he would stay through 2014 and that veteran executive Mark Fields would take over day-to-day business as chief operating officer.
Fields ran the company's Americas operations for seven years, turning them into a profit machine. His appointment as COO is a strong indication that the board favours him to replace Mulally.
Washington-based Microsoft Corp is reportedly considering Mulally as a replacement for CEO Steve Ballmer, who intends to step down in less than a year.
Mulally on his part hasn't denied reports that tech giant is courting him. His name surfaced shortly after Ballmer said in August that he would retire. The two are friends, and Mulally still has a home in the Seattle area. Ballmer even spoke with Mulally over coffee about a wide-ranging reorganization that Microsoft announced in July.
A management expert said the Ford CEO's no-comment indicates that he has some interest in the Microsoft job.
"His non-denial denial means that he's either talking to them or that he wishes he were talking to them," said Yale University management and law professor Jonathan Macey, who has written a book on corporate governance.