This is not Bill Gates’ Microsoft.
In his first major appearance as Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella made it clear without speaking a word that the staid software giant is getting an image overhaul.
Gone were the big stage and baggy suits preferred by Nadella’s predecessors, CEO Steve Ballmer and founder Gates.
Nadella unveiled Microsoft Office for the iPad on Thursday at an event in San Francisco, where he gave off a youthful, hipster vibe. The CEO wore stylish blue jeans, a brown polo shirt with white trim and dark-rimmed glasses.
His official “coming out” party was held in an intimate room where he stood at eye level with the audience of mostly reporters.
“He’s acting more like a Silicon Valley company rather than a big behemoth,” said branding expert Allen Adamson. “They’re trying to show that the culture of Microsoft is changing to a next generation of entrepreneurs and engineers.”
And it wasn’t just Nadella’s laid-back threads. Microsoft general manager Julia White, who presented the Office iPad app, was decked out in a black form-fitting LaMarque motorcycle jacket.
“Julia White looks like she arrived from some cool sci-fi future in her leather jacket to stop us from destroying ourselves #cloudformobile,” @peachorchid tweeted.
“I think Julia White’s very cool leather jacket should have its own Twitter account,” Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff wrote.
Analyst Dan Ives of FBR Capital Markets gave the new look two thumbs up but said the “jury is still out” on whether Microsoft’s makeover is more than skin deep.
The tech giant’s stock, which had risen 5.4 percent this year, dropped more than 1 percent, to $39.36, on Thursday.
Despite his “mobile first, cloud first” motto, Nadella has to persuade Wall Street that the Redmond, Wash., company can innovate like nimbler rivals and transition from PC to mobile devices.
Still, the moves are an indication that Nadella is at least trying to make a break from the “buttoned-up bureaucratic style that has plagued Microsoft over the years,” Ives said.
“The fear was that he was going to be the status quo — driving 55 miles an hour in the right lane,” he said.