Mahindra Satyam Appoints Vineet Nayyar As Chairman, Settles Case With Upaid - Update
(RTTNews) - Wednesday, India-based IT services provider Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (SAY), now known as Mahindra Satyam, said that it has appointed Vineet Nayyar, previously Vice Chairman of the board, as the Chairman. Nayyar will also continue to operate as a whole time director of the company.
Earlier, Nayyar worked with the Government of India, international multilateral agencies and in the corporate sector. Nayyar started his career with the Indian Administrative Service following which he worked with the World Bank.
The company in a statement said that Nayyar was the founding chairman and managing director of the state owned Gas Authority of India and has served as managing director of HCL Corporation Ltd. and as the vice chairman of HCL Technologies Ltd. He was also a co-founder and chief executive officer of HCL Perot Systems.
Satyam also named Damodaran and Gautam Kaji as additional directors and audit committee members, with immediate effect, expanding its board to eight members.
Prior to joining Satyam, Damodaran worked as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India or SEBI, India's capital market regulator. Previously, Kaji was the Managing Director for operations of the World Bank with responsibility for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia. He is currently Chairman of Centennial Group, a Washington based Policy and Strategic advisory firm and their non profit initiative, The Emerging Markets Forum.
The company also appointed Deloitte Haskins & Sells as statutory auditors.
Satyam also said that its board has approved a settlement with the U.K based online and mobile payments service company Upaid Systems for $70 million.
The settlement agreement requires Upaid to grant to Mahindra Satyam a perpetual worldwide, royalty free license on all of its patents, and provides for the dismissal with prejudice of all pending actions, noted the company.
Upaid Systems originally filed the Texas lawsuit in April 2007 claiming fraud, forgery and breach of contract against Satyam Computers, as a result of which Upaid suffered damages to its business and prospects in excess of $1 billion.
The company agreed to make payments in two installments. First amount will be an upfront payment of $45 million within 10 days of the company getting regulatory approval under the Indian law, and second amount of $25 million will be made within 12 months after the first payment, noted Satyam.
Satyam was thrown into turmoil in January after its founder Ramalinga Raju admitted that he had overstated the software exporter's profits for several years and created a fictitious cash balance of more than $1billion. After which, the government took control of the company and sold it to Tech Mahindra Ltd.
SAY is currently trading at $5.02, up $0.29 or 6.13% on a volume of 1.70 million shares on the NYSE.
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