Employees walking into Mahindra Satyam’s Infocity campus in Hyderabad’s IT district of Madhapur on Wednesday morning were greeted by a curious sight. Huge posters extolling the ‘Power of 1’ and sporting a picture of a man (with the Tech Mahindra logo emblazoned on top) and a woman with the Mahindra Satyam logo on top were plastered across the entrance and lobby of the building that once housed disgraced Satyam boss B Ramalinga Raju’s offices on the fifth floor.
The posters, meant to drive home the impending merger of the two players to employees, left many drawing parallels with a groom (Tech Mahindra) who will take the bride (Mahindra Satyam) away after marriage, especially since Satyam brand name is expected to be history The situation also had many joking that it was a case of a poor boy (TechM that is saddled with a huge debt) bagging the hand of a rich yet beleaguered bride in marriage as MSat has huge cash reserves and land banks. Most Mahindra Satyam employees woke up on Wednesday to reports of the merger like the rest of the world, some like Apurva, for whom Wednesday was Day one in the company, sported dazed expressions, while others appeared to be resigned to MSat’s very much like a soon-to-be-wed bride.
There were others like a top-ranking Satyam official, who has been with the company since Raju’s days, but was visibly taken aback on hearing the news of the headquarters of the merged entity to be Mumbai and others who couldn’t help but fret over whether the merger meant the axe would be wielded.
“We were not told about the merger or shifting of headquarters to Mumbai. We are very worried there will be lay-offs because of the merger,” said Mayura K, a techie who has been with the company over the past four and half years. Added Shanti B, who has been Satyam since before the scam: “I came to know about the merger through newspapers. With the brand image of Satyam being washed out after the scam, a merger may be a better in the current scenario.” “This is a change we will have to live with,” said Ashutosh who has put in 7 years with Satyam in two different stints. A mail from the office of Mahindra Satyam chairman Vineet Nayyar announcing the merger was only sent out to employees on Wednesday morning, confirmed Hari T, chief people’s officer, MSat, adding throughout the day business leaders and team leaders were holding meetings with employees to brief them. The minority shareholders of the company, who have been opposing the merger on the grounds that the MSat scrip was undervalued, are not too happy to hear about the merger or the swap ratio (One TechM share for 8.5 MSat shares). “I am not satisfied. The share swap ratio is not reasonable,” said a disgruntled Hyderabad-based shareholder NP Ranga Rao.
“A swap ratio of 1:4 or 5 would have been fair because Satyam is a bigger IT player with huge assets like land banks and buildings,” added another city-based shareholder Bharat Shah.
According to another minority shareholder Praful Chavda, who has been invested in Satyam since its IPO, the ratio was only favourable for TechM shareholders and was not good for minority shareholders of MSat.
–Courtesy:Toi