 "Tech Mahindra Wins Satyam Bid")
Tech Mahindra, the IT arm of auto major Mahindra and Mahindra, today won the bid for India’s fourth largest software exporter Satyam Computer.
Satyam’s new board of directors, which met to select the highest bidder, chose Tech Mahindra following its bid of Rs 1,757 crore for 31 percent stake in the scam-tainted IT giant.
Tech Mahindra offered Rs 58 for each Satyam share.
The board will now have to inform the Company Law Board (CLB) of its selection. The CLB will announce its approval within a week. The new owner will take over the management only after CLB’s nod.
Engineering major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) and private-equity firm WL Ross were among the other major contenders for the Hyderabad-headquartered Satyam.
L&T already holds 12.04 percent stake in Satyam.
In the past few months, there has been a lot of speculation surrounding Satyam’s future. S Gopalakrishnan, CEO, Infosys Technologies, said, “It is commendable that the government-appointed board at Satyam has been able to bring a closure to the uncertainty surrounding Satyam’s future. The government has addressed the issue quickly and responsibly. Overall, it is a good thing that the issue is put behind us.”
Nasscom president Som Mittal said, “Everybody has worked to the moment. The government has acted on time to appoint a board, while industry maintained restraint in not poaching the clients and employees of Satyam.”
Gartner View
Partha Iyengar, head of Research, Gartner India, said, “It is imperative for the new owner of Satyam to move quickly on the following priorities:
- Restore complete confidence in clients, employees and investors in that order
- Project clear plans to return Satyam to its former glory, including ramping up investment in growth initiatives
- Present a 30/60/90 day plan for integration and return to normality for Satyam
- Make any management changes intended, in the first 60 days after the acquisition
Doing these things in a co-ordinated manner will cause the sentiment around Satyam to stabilise and hasten a return to ‘business as usual’ for the company.”
The Board
The six-member Satyam board is headed by Kiran Karnik, former president of Nasscom. Besides Karnik, the board comprises HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, former Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) member C Achuthan and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) mentor Tarun Das.