Hyderabad, Jan 08: In the country's biggest corporate fraud involving about Rs 8,000 crore, iconic IT company Satyam was hurtling towards disaster following the shocking disclosure of accounts fudging by its founder Ramalinga Raju, who then quit as chairman - leaving an uncertain future for the company and its 53,000 employees.
Top leaders of the company today pledged to stay on and work jointly to steer the sinking organisation, following financial irregularity
disclosures by founder-chairman B Ramalinga Raju.
"Ten of the most senior executives of Satyam, including interim CEO Ram Mynampati, gathered at its headquarters in Hyderabad, (and) have collectively committed not to resign from the company, which has about 53,000 associates,” a press release issued by the company stated.
About 40 other top managers from various geographical regions - known as the Leadership Council - have also given their commitment to remain in the company," Satyam stated.
"The pledges of commitment from these leaders, coming hours after disclosures and the resignation of Raju, underscore the unity and determination of the Satyam leadership to steer the company through this crisis," the eight leaders said in a joint statement.
The company would hold a press conference in Hyderabad today to outline an action plan to address key concerns of various stakeholders, including customers, investors, employees and business partners.
"Satyam is facing a major crisis in which the unity and clear strategic direction of its top leadership are of paramount importance. This collective commitment will serve to significantly assuage concerns of various stakeholders in a highly fluid and challenging situation," the statement added.
Besides Mynampati, the others staying include Subu D Subramanian, Head, Manufacturing and Automotive; T R Anand, Head, Media and Telecommunications, Infrastructure, and Semiconductors; Virender Aggarwal, Head, Asia Pacific, India, Middle East, Africa; Manish Mehta, Head, SAP & Testing Practices; and A S V Krishnan, Human Resources head.
However, Satyam CFO Srinivas Valdamani was not on the list.
Earlier, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has urged the Prime Minister to immediately constitute a team with the likes of Infosys' Narayana Murthy, Wipro's Azim Premji and TCS' S Ramadorai to manage Satyam's affairs.
"Our major and immediate concern is about the fate of 53,000 employees of the company. I have no doubt in my mind that the law will take its own course but as majority of the clients\customers of Satyam are Fortune 500 companies, they may be averse to do business with companies having fraudulent managements," Reddy wrote to Manmohan Singh.
Copies of the letter were sent to Home Minister P Chidambaram, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Union minister for company affairs Prem Chand Gupta.
There was, however, some speculation that the Larsen & Toubro Group might be eying to take over the company. The engineering major is believed to have hiked its stake in the tainted software entity to roughly 3.5-4 percent on Wednesday, from 2 percent last week.
Bureau Report