On the heels of their successful bid for Satyam, executives at
India's Tech Mahindra said their main goal is to help the
scandal-scarred outsourcer regain trust lost as a result of an
accounting scandal so vast it's been dubbed "India's Enron."
"We will work with Satyam's customers, business partners,
employees, and other stakeholders to restore confidence in the
company and to create a platform for future growth," Tech Mahindra
CEO Vineet Nayyar said in a statement.
Tech Mahindra, which specializes in providing IT services to the
telecom industry, on Monday was declared the highest bidder for
Satyam. The outsourcer had placed itself on the block with an eye
to finding a buyer capable of salvaging its operations. Tech
Mahindra agreed to pay a total of $422 million for a 51% stake in
Satyam. The deal remains subject to closing conditions.
Tech Mahindra has its work cut out for it. The fraud perpetrated by
Satyam's leaders infected a wide swath of the company's operations
and management ranks.
Founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju has admitted falsifying the
company's cash position by as much as $1 billion while overstating
quarterly earnings and revenue by up to 28%. Satyam also may have
faked employee numbers and other data.
Indian authorities last week formally charged Raju and several
alleged accomplices with a range of crimes. The charges, which run
300 pages in length, include criminal conspiracy, impersonation,
forgery, falsification of records, and evidence tampering.
Charged along with Raju were Satyam managing director Rama Raju,
CFO Vadlamani Srinivas, finance VP G. Ramakrishna, senior finance
manager D. Venkatapathy, assistant finance manager Ch. Srisailam,
and director Suryanarayana Raju. Also charged were two employees of
Satyam auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers India.
Tech Mahindra's first priority must be to stanch an exodus that
has seen Satyam customers flee in droves after learning of the
fraud.
Last month, the United Nations said it planned to terminate its
contracts with Satyam and bar the outsourcer from bidding on future
work. Another Satyam customer to eye alternatives is Selective
Insurance, the 47th-largest property and casualty insurance company
in the United States. Selective has outsourced about a quarter of
its IT staffing requirements to Satyam.
Gadget maker SanDisk has also said it's considering pulling
its contracts from Satyam.
Tech Mahindra also will have to deal with numerous investor
lawsuits filed against Satyam and its management team. Last week, a
judge agreed to consolidate several of those suits into a single
case that will be heard in U.S. federal court in lower
Manhattan.
Tech Mahindra has yet to provide much detail on its plans for
Satyam. Yet to be answered are the number of employees to be
retained and the fate of the Satyam brand name.