Upaid-Satyam case hearing pushed to Jan

Tech Mahindra, owner of Satyam Computer Services (rebranded as Mahindra Satyam), got a breather from a Texas court last Friday on charges regarding the scam in the latters’ accounts under the old owners. The court has deferred hearing of the Upaid case to January 2010. The case was to be heard on Tuesday.

Upaid, a UK-based online and mobile payments services company, is seeking $1 billion by way of damages from Satyam for alleged forgery, fraud and breach of contracts.

When asked, Simon Joyce, chairman and chief executive officer, Upaid, confirmed: “Yes, September 8 was the date when the hearing was supposed to come up. But there was an adjournment in the Texas court and the new trial date would be in early January.

The decision was agreed upon by both the parties to reschedule the trial time.” Joyce declined to comment on a likely out-of-court settlement or detail reasons for the postponement.

After Tech Mahindra took over Satyam almost four months earlier, the court had given a continuance of 90 days, as the new owners required some time to adjust.

Both the parties declined to comment on the possibility of an out-of-court settlement. There have been rumours that Tech Mahindra would like to go for one and was ready to offer $10 million as settlement.

Other than the Upaid case, Tech Mahindra also has to face 13 class action lawsuits filed by US investors. Experts have pegged a figure of around $100-150 million as damages arising from these lawsuits.