Satyam get new CEO, advisors & Chairman

After rounds of discussion & giving different pointers in the media, the board annouced A S Murthy (popularly known as ASM) as the CEO of Satyam. ASM has been associated with Satyam since last 15 years in various capacities like head of the HR & most recently being the chief of delivery.

Homi Khusrokhan, who was the former MD of Tata Chemicals & Partho Dutta, former CFO of Murugappa Group were also appointed by the board as advisors along with Boston Consulting Group. The two though were tipped to be the CEO & CFO respectively, but the slew of legal actions would have forced the board to appoint them as advisors.

The day after ASM was appointed as CEO, the board annouced Kiran Karnik as the chairman. These ended the weeks of sceptism about the board of directors & his appointment could give a huge boost to in the relationships with clients has Karnik was previously associated with NASSCOM. He was instrumental in bringing the positive turning to the growth story in the India IT industry in early 2002.

Satyam: Spice Group Interested in Acquisition

The latest news on the Satyam is coming out that Spice Group is interested in picking up a stake in Satyam. Spice has approached Ministry of Corporate affairs to acquire 51% stake in Satyam.

More to follow soon...

Satyam Board Meet

The new board members of Satyam met again today & have given updates on few crucial aspects:

1. Salaries - The employees have been assured of payments of salaries for the month of January.
2. Advisors - Boston Consulting Group has been appointed as the advisor to the management.
3. Investment Banker - Goldman Sachs & Avendus are the bankers for the organisation under the new board.
4. Management Structure - A new management structure & plan has been decided & the same will be shared with media this week.
5. Employee Number - The count on number of employee seems to be right according to the preliminary investigations.

Satyam Saga: PwC officials sent to judicial custody

In continuation of investigations into Satyam fraud, the latest reports coming in are that PwC officials S Gopalakrishnan (Chief Relationship Partner) and Srinivas Taluri(Engagement Leader) have been sent to judicial custody.

Satyam : Additional board members

The government has announced addition of 3 new board members

Satyam : Additional board members

The government has announced addition of 3 new members to the board of director at Satyam.

The new board members are

Tarun Das - Chief mentor at CII (Confederation if Indian Industry)

TN Manoharan - ex-chief of ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India)

Satyam - New Auditors

Reports are coming in now that the new board has decided on the set of auditor to review the financial health of Satyam & come out with its Q3 results.

News are flowing that KPMG & Deloitte have been shortlisted as the auditors.

Will be adding more details as they come in.

Satyam Update

Highlights

• Top priority is - to restore the confidence of customers, employees, suppliers and investors... Satyam has a lot of marquee customers, so the sustainability of service is a priority
• Will appoint auditors in next 48 hours to analyse the financial health
• Will appoint CEO & CFO soon, no timeframe or names have been decided yet- Not decided on suing PwC as of now
• Government to look into appointing new board members

The new board has spent a day at Satyam today & were briefing the press in the late evening. Initial focus of the board is to study the financial health of the organisation & understand the situation at ground zero. Answering to one query, Deepak Parekh said that they would not like to go by the face value of the contents that have been spilled out in Ramalinga Raju's mail on the current financial situation of the organisation, instead they will nominate a group of auditors in next 48 hours, who'll look into the matter & come our with correct set of figures. Also, according to him, these figures would be the basis on which banks could lend to Satyam.

The second issue they would like to address is appointing the CEO & CFO. Ram Mynampati, who till recently was one of the directors on the board has been stripped off the powers as director, but will continue to be part of Satyam as a senior employee. According to the new boards they have not yet identified any names for these post.

Satyam Board - Profiles

Just a brief on the profiles of the 3 new board members of the beleagured IT firm Satyam.

Deepak Parekh

• CA by qualification- Currently chairman of HDFC Ltd
• Awarded Padma Bhushan- Started his career working for E&Y.
• Has worked for leading banks in the world like Grindlays Bank, Chase Manhattan.
• Was awarded with 'Businessman of the Year" in 1996 by Business India

Kiran Karnik

• Ex-president of NASSCOM- Awarded Padma Shri in 2007
• Holds a PG from IIM
• Has been recognized as the guiding force for the Indian IT industry during the outsourcing backlash
• Prior to joining Nasscom in 2001, Kiran Karnik was the managing director at Discovery Networks in India where he was instrumental in the launch of Discovery Channel in South Asia in August 1995 and Animal Planet (a Discovery – BBC joint venture) in 1999- Between 1991 to 1995, Kiran Karnik was founder-director of the Consortium for Educational Communication, which was responsible for UGC’s Countrywide Classroom broadcasts and other ICT initiatives
  

C Achuthan

• Former member of SEBI
• Was a presiding officer of the Securities Appellate Tribunal(SAT)

New SATYAM board

Satyam Update:

A new booard has been constituted by the Government to lead Satyam. The new board constitutes of leading honchos from the business community & they are:

1. Kiran Karnik, former chairman of NASSCOM

2. Deepak Parekh, banker from HDFC

3. C Achutan, former member of SEBI.