Vineet Nayyar has been appointed Chairman of Mahindra Satyam.
M. Damodaran, former chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India, and Gautam S. Kaji, Chairman of Washington-based Centennial Group, have been appointed additional directors and the new appointments will come into force with immediate effect, Mahindra Satyam said. The size of the board has been increased to eight comprising four independent directors, including two nominee directors of the Central Government, two non-executive and two whole-time directors.
The board appointed Mr. Damodaran and Mr. Kaji as members of the audit committee and had appointed Deloitte Haskins & Sells as statutory auditors.
Mr. Nayyar, who would also continue to operate as a whole-time director worked with Union Government, international multilateral agencies and in the corporate sector.
Settlement with Upaid
PTI reports from New Delhi:
Meanwhile, the company’s board has approved settlement of lawsuits brought by its former client Upaid Systems by paying $70 million.
The company would make the first payment of $45 million to Upaid, which had filed a forgery case against Satyam, within 10 days of getting necessary regulatory approval for the same, Mahindra Satyam informed the stock exchanges. The balance would be paid within the next 12 months of making the first payment.
Upaid had filed the lawsuit in a Texas court seeking damages exceeding $1 billion. The proceedings against Satyam commenced in 2007, alleging forgery of documents necessary for transfer of proper title under an assignment agreement entered into in 1998.
Satyam had assigned and transferred its rights, title and interests in certain computer software to Upaid by getting assent from all the employees who had worked on the project, but the signature of one of the employees was found to have been forged. The settlement would also involve Upaid giving Mahindra Satyam a worldwide royalty-free licence on all of its patents, and provides for the dismissal of all pending actions between the parties, the filing said.
