NOMURA: We Still Believe Alan Mulally Will Be Microsoft's Next CEO

A Ford board member said,"Alan is staying through the end of 2014 and that's all I know."

Mulally said, "I love serving Ford ... I have no change to the plan."

The board member's comment sounded like a fairly strong statement that indicates Mulally will not join Microsoft. As a result, Microsoft's stock dropped.

Well, Rick Sherlund at Nomura says, "We view these comments as non-answers to the question and appear to us to be consistent with our view that he is in discussions with Microsoft's board for the CEO slot at Microsoft."

Sherlund also says,"If he were not in discussions, it would be easy to say I am not interested and will not go, as some other candidates have said. He does not say this."

He still thinks Mulally is "likely" to be the next CEO of Microsoft.