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Satyam finds a boss and money

Insider gets tug for tough job

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Enterprise, 5th February 2009 16:10 GMT

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Satyam's board of directors took two days to decide, but has now appointed a new CEO to replace Ramalinga Raju, who is still in jail awaiting trial for an alleged billion-dollar fraud.

A S Murty, a 15-year Satyam veteran, starts as CEO immediately. He is informally known as ASM and previously worked at Tata.

Board member Deepak Parekh said: "He is well respected for his ability to effectively integrate the team and enable a collective decision making - which will be critical as Satyam moves into its revival phase... In our interactions over the past few weeks, we are convinced that Satyam needs an internal leader to steer it at this critical juncture and ASM has the required bandwidth and support."

The troubled firm also announced it had a bailout from the banks in place and was appointing two new special advisers.

Partho Datta will help with finance and Homi Khusrokhan with finance. Khusrokhan said, rather mystically: "I expect this opportunity to be a singularly enriching experience and I look forward to contributing my might to this noble task.”

The outsourcer also said it had secured $130m in funding. This money, together with normal income from clients, means Satyam can pay its January wage bill worldwide, as well as US fortnightly salaries due in February.

The board said its main priorities remain the same - reassuring customers and staff, sorting out the books, dealing with legal liabilities and looking at longer-term options, with the help of advisers, such as selling the company. ®

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