Microsoft’s Nadella Said to Have Proposed Salesforce Deal Before

Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella had previously been interested in acquiring cloud-software rival Salesforce.com Inc. before he was named chief executive officer, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

When Nadella, who became CEO last year, was the head of Microsoft’s server and cloud unit, he brought up the idea during a meeting of the senior leadership team under then-CEO Steve Ballmer, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter.