Satyam no more a worthy rival of Infosys!

Scam-hit Satyam Computer may have embarked upon a revival path under the new owner Tech Mahindra, but it seems to have lost its place among the noteworthy competitors of its rival Indian IT service provider Infosys.

Before it was hit by the country's largest ever corporate fraud, admitted to by its founder and the then chairman B Ramalinga Raju in January, Satyam had been a regular on the list of competitors mentioned by Infosys in its annual report filings with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, Satyam's name is conspicuously absent on Infosys' latest annual report filing for the financial year ended March 31, 2009.

Both Infosys and Satyam are listed in the US -- Infosys on the Nasdaq and Satyam on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

In its annual report filings, Infosys had been saying that it operates in "a highly competitive and rapidly changing market", while listing out among its rivals the names of Indian IT service providers such as TCS, Wipro, Satyam, HCL Technologies; ...

...Business process outsourcing (BPO) firms like Genpact and WNS; and global players like IBM, HP, Cap Gemini, Oracle and SAP.

However, in its latest annual filing, Infosys has dropped the names Satyam as well as HCL.

The other names and factors about competition in Infosys' latest annual filing have remained broadly unchanged from the previous year.

Infosys has said that it competes with "consulting firms such as Accenture, Atos Origin, BearingPoint Inc, Cap Gemini SA, and Deloitte Consulting LLP".

Besides, it also competes with divisions of large global technology firms such as HP and IBM; IT outsourcing firms such as Computer Sciences Corp, Keane, Logica and Perot Systems; and offshore technology services firms such as Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Technologies.

Other companies named as its competitors include "software firms such as Oracle Corporation and SAP AG; business process outsourcing firms such as Genpact and WNS Global Services; and in-house IT departments of large corporations".

Infosys has further said that "in the future we expect competition from firms establishing and building their offshore presence and firms in countries with lower personnel costs than those prevailing in India".