Why is Microsoft having such difficulty finding a new CEO? As Re/code reports, many potential CEO candidates are worried about whether they’ll really have a free hand to run the company with founder and chairman Bill Gates lurking in the background. In fact, Re/code’s sources both inside and outside Microsoft say Gates “is more likely to remain visible, depending on the new leader, as well as more active within the company”.

On Friday, the latest chatter in the ongoing rumor mill that has become the Microsoft CEO search began again, with sudden noise that the new leader would be announced sometime in the next few days. What ho? (There goes my holiday weekend!) I got several calls myself, with sources insisting they heard it from major investors and other Wall Street sources who had been assured that the board had made its choice and would soon reveal it. Already, there was new speculation to feed this latest, such as a Bloomberg’s addition of Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg to the candidate pile last week.