Satyam board to meet today

The meeting of the six-member Satyam Computer Services board, which was nominated by the government to stabilise the fraud-devastated company, was deferred by a day “as it was working on some other issues to salvage the company from the current crisis,” according to Hari Thalapalli, head of global marketing and communications, Satyam. 

The board was scheduled to meet on Monday and Tuesday — its fourth meeting since it was installed on January 12 — to finalise the appointment of the chief executive officer and chief financial officer, besides mopping up additional funds. The last meeting held on January 22-23 had remained inconclusive. 

The board is currently working on everything to give a lifeline to the cash-strapped company “including talking to Satyam employees, clients and banks,” Hari said.

The new board, following its January 22-23 meet, had said in a statement that funding arrangements were close to being concluded, which will address the company’s cash-flow problems till the end of March 2009. Satyam needs about Rs 500 crore a month for salaries.

Refuting the public prosecutors’ allegation that Satyam had only 40,000 associates and not around 53,000, Hari said: “We have done an internal verification and there is no reason to doubt the existing numbers.”