Some employees have alleged that close to 20 employees of the troubled Satyam Computer Services have been promoted to the I-1 and I-2 bands (representing assistant vice-president and vice-president levels) and also received a salary hike of 20-40 per cent. The timing has caused much resentment with some employees taking up the matter with the human resources department.
India's scandal-hit Satyam Computer Services is to invite formal bids from potential suitors this week, pushing ahead with a possible sale - even though it could be months before its accounts are restated.
Showing clear signs of quicker recovery from the current crisis, the scam-devastated Satyam Computer Services has been awarded a fixed bid project on data modelling by a leading provider of healthcare solutions by diagnostic, treatment and preventative care.
The board -- which includes, Kiran Karnik, T N Manoharan, former chief, ICAI, and HDFC chief Deepak Parekh, appeared relieved after a marathon run of selecting a bidder for the scam-tainted firm.
The government is likely to appoint more directors on the board of the crisis-ridden Satyam Computer Services soon. "More directors will be appointed within two days," a senior official of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs said.
Demanding a probe by central regulatory agency into the financial irregularities committed by software company Satyam Computer Services, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday alleged that a scam of such proportions was not possible without the support of SEBI, MCA, Planning Commission and the Andhra Pradesh government.
Many members of the association, who had bought shares of the IT firm at Rs 540 some four months back, had suffered heavy losses when the scrip crashed to Rs 39 on Wednesday, he said.
Former chairman of Satyam Computer Services B Ramalinga Raju, the prime accused in multi-crore accounting fraud in the IT firm, on Monday gave consent for his examination on the charges against him through a questionnaire.
The former Satyam employees, who were granted bail, were its former internal chief auditor V S Prabhakar Gupta besides executives G Ramakrishna, D Venkatpathi Raju and Ch Srisailam. The fifth accused, who got the bail, is PWC's former auditor Subramani Gopalakrishnan.
In a major development in the Satyam fraud case, US regulators on Tuesday fined the software firm and its auditors PriceWaterhouse India up to $17.5 million for the accounts bungling that went undetected for several years.
Though it's over 24 hours since the founder-chairman of Satyam Computer Services, B Ramlinga Raju, resigned after making shocking revelations, its employees (known as associates) are yet to come to terms with the reality.
Satyam Computer Services announced on Wednesday that it added 27 new clients in the quarter ended September 30, 2003.
Engineering giant Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is selling a third of its 6.9 per cent stake in Mahindra Satyam, formerly Satyam Computer Services. The transaction is expected to fetch Rs 304 crore (Rs 3.04 billion) for the company, said banking sources.
The company expects the division to add double-digit growth to the company's top line during the current financial year, he said.
Satyam Computer Services, India's fourth largest software services exporter, reported a quarterly profit of Rs 116 crore (Rs 1.16 billion) on Thursday.\n\n\n\n
The National Association of Software and Services Companies, the apex body of the IT-BPO industry in India, on Wednesday expressed shock at the disclosures made by Satyam Computer Services chairman B Ramalinga Raju.
Three days after the World Bank decided to ban it for eight years, Satyam Computer Services today hit back and demanded an apology from the bank for "certain inappropriate statements" made by its representatives.
The new chief executive officer of the scandal-hit Satyam Computer Services, AS Murty, has asked the company's employees (associates as they are called) to reduce, avoid or defer operational expenses wherever and whenever possible "to keep the company's business running smoothly and competing effectively in the market for new business".
The jury members included Ashish Dhawan, senior managing director, ChrysCapital, Keki Dadiseth, managing director, Omnicom, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman and managing director, Aditya Birla Group and S Ramadorai, chief executive, TCS.
The company aims to book a profit of over Rs 250 crore from the open market sale, said two sources familiar with the development.
The seven-year deal will enable integration of support functions and build best-in-class organisational processes for the bank.
More trouble is brewing for Maytas Properties Ltd, the unlisted company promoted by the family of Satyam Computer Services Ltd founder B Ramalinga Raju.
A source close to the development pointed out that, with the newly-appointed Minister of Corporate Affairs Salman Khurshid publicly stating that Tech Mahindra would have to deal with the excess employee issue with 'sensitivity', this is one point that will surely be discussed.
Tech Mahindra's acquisition of Satyam Computer Services, according to an internal survey, has helped in restoring the confidence of the latter's clients, many of whom were thinking of terminating their ties with the fraud-hit IT firm.
The short duration discussion under Rule 193 on the situation arising out of the alleged mismanagement of the affairs of the Satyam Computer Services will now be taken up on February 25, the Lok Sabha bulletin said. Initially, the discussion was scheduled to be held on February 13, but was deferred following a request from leader of the Opposition L K Advani.
Employees of Satyam Computer Services are in a quandary over looking for jobs outside the company. Some admit that consultants are offering them jobs, but at salaries that are almost half their current cost-to-company packages. Many others are running into a dead-end given the poor job market.
Employees of Satyam Computer Services are in a quandary over looking for jobs outside the company. Some admit that consultants are offering them jobs, but at salaries that are almost half their current cost-to-company (C-to-C) packages. Many others are running into a dead-end given the poor job market.
"The situation is bad. Some people are leaving and some are being asked to leave. And more important, several positions are remaining vacant. The selected candidates for these posts are not coming," said an associate, as the employees are called. "There is talk now that the new company, whichever that is, will cut at least 10,000 jobs gradually. We are praying that this is unfounded," a senior associate said.
If no bid comes within at least 90 per cent of the highest bid, the highest bidder would be declared the final buyer. Accordingly, the government-appointed board and Justice S P Bharucha, the former chief justice who will oversee the bidding, will open the sealed financial bids submitted by the shortlisted qualified bidders whose technical bids have been found satisfactory, and rank them based on price only. Earlier, there was no ranking of the bids.
The scam-tainted Satyam Computer Services appears to be gearing for action after almost a month of uncertainty.
BSE CEO M L Soneji said the exchange was investigating the trading data of Satyam. Highlighting lack of corporate governance, he said this was an opportunity to revisit regulations to make company directors more responsible and auditors more accountable.
The L&T stock, which fell by over 5 per cent in intra-day trades on Monday bounced back towards the end of the session though it was still in the red. The stock has been badly de-rated since the engineering major made it clear that it was a contender for Satyam, picking up a 12 per cent stake in the tech firm. Had L&T won control at the winning bid of Rs 58 per share, the stock may have lost further ground. As it stands, not too much damage has been done.
A day before the second meeting of the new Satyam Computer Services board, newly-appointed director Tarun Das said the priority of the six-member team would be to protect the interest of employees, customers and investors.
The court had earlier asked Raju's lawyers to file an affidavit on whether the Satyam founder can be examined through a questionnaire.
Leading accounting firm KPMG on Friday said the existing management of beleaguered Satyam Computer Services should go and the government take control of the company board to save the image of India Inc.
By contrast, the fraud enabled Raju's kin and aides to make hundreds of crores, charges CBI.
In an e-mail interview to Assistant Managing Editor Indrani Roy Mitra, chairman of National Association of Software and Service Companies, Ganesh Natarajan discusses the issues related to the Satyam debacle.
The special court for economic offences here today posted six cases filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) against former directors of Satyam Computer Services Ltd in the multi-crore accounting scam to April 29 and the remaining one case to April 21.
Of the 10 accused in the case, B Suryanarayana Raju, who is Raju's brother, and T Srinivas, a former auditor of PricewaterhouseCoopers, had been granted bail by different courts earlier.