Satyam loses 23 clients till March

Scam-hit Satyam Computer today said it lost 23 customers in about three months after the disclosure of a massive fraud by its founder Ramalinga Raju, but won new business orders from as many as 215 clients during the same period.     

Besides, 43 other customers partially or completely withdrew their businesses from Satyam, although they did not terminate their service agreements, Satyam said.     

The disclosure about customer wins and losses post Raju's resignation and fraud admittance letter have been made for the period till March 26, 2009.     

The 23 clients lost by Satyam had accounted for $70 million of billings for Satyam in the quarter ended December 31, 2008, while the new business orders granted by the 215 customers to Satyam totaled $380 million.     

These 215 customers included mostly Satyam's existing clients.     

The firm had been losing clients from the time the scam came to light in January and Tech Mahindra's (TechM) takeover has not been able to arrest the trend.

Moreover, 19 customers have withdrawn business contributing $22 million in the Decmber 31, 2008 as revenues of the firm.     

It is not only the clients who were leaving the firm, but over 2,000 employees of Satyam have also quit the once iconic IT  company in the first two months of this calendar year, bringing the total headcount down to 41,622 as of March.     

Between January 2008 and February 2009, the company saw a total of 9,400 staff leave, with the highest monthly attrition of 1,602 seen in February.     

The monthly employee attrition numbers for Satyam (standalone) were 746 in January and 1,602 in February, this year aggregating to 2,348, the filing said.