According to The Economic Times of India, the board of directors at Ford Motor Co is interested in knowing the future decisions of its chief executive officer, Alan Mulally, are. The inquiries of Ford's management are in light of the increasing speculation that Mulally might be offered the job to head Microsoft Corp.

The report said the 68 year-old Mulally is among the handful of contenders for the chief role at Microsoft, according to various sources who are close to the tech giant. Mulally, on his part, had not come out publicly to renounce talks about his interest in the role.

Two sources told Reuters in a separate article this week that the speculation about Mulally's immediate future had vexed some members of Ford's board, and that the next board meeting that will be held in Detroit on Thursday will be tackling the issue as part of its agenda. It was not clear in the report, or with The Economic Times of India's article, whether Mulally will be attending the board meeting as he is also a board member. The sources added that the board members will be wanting to discuss the issue with Mulally this week or the next one after that.

One source close to Ford's board said, referring to the automaker's financial results and company cars, "It's drowning out the rest of the story. People don't write about Mustang, they don't write about earnings, they write about Mulally."

Microsoft refused to provide a comment about the status of its search process for its CEO. On the other hand, a Ford spokesman parroted statements that were made earlier, which said that Mulally is set to be keeping his position at Ford as CEO until next year. This was despite information in September was made known about the automaker's board being open to see Mulally leave his post, The Economic Times of India said in its report.