IBM to buy satyam

13-3-09: After getting the approval find a strategic partner of 51% shares of satyam the bidding process for this share has begun. The Expression of interest in buying needs to be filed before 20th of march. With the start of this process many suitors have already expressed their interest. But what has surprised many is the interest shown by PE firms in this bidding.

As of now rumors say there are already about 70 firms interested but many of them may not be serious. They are just there to be a part of it. With the increasing numbers has become very difficult for the satyam and its board members to answer all the questions filed along with their interest. Many firms have come up with a huge list of questions that needs to be answered before they go ahead with the bidding process. All this may take a lot of time if the number of bidders increase. Already, many customers have withdrawn their projects from satyam looking at their state of affairs. With time the value of the company will get eroded so its really very tuff to say the number of serious bidders. Publicly only a few companies like Larsen and Turbo, spice, Tech Mahindra and hinduja group expressed their interest in buying these shares. Companies like IGate are into it only because they dont want to be left out in the race.

It is really very tuff to put a value on the shares before any of the information about the financial in the last quarter is released. The board has said that all the prospective bidders will get the information about all these soon. Only after this can anyone put a proper value on the company.

20-3-09: Today IGate exited from the race of bidding for satyam. IGate seems to have exited after learning that the entire process of bidding would last for another 2-3 months , not knowing about the financials of the company and continous erosion of the company value day by day.

As of now there seems to be three serious bidders for this company L&T, spice and Tech Mahindra.

3-4-07: Spice dropped out of the race saying that the bidding process is not transparent enough. One of the serious bidders (Spice) dropping out for this reason has affected the complete process. This has forced the board members to take some steps towards making this more transparent. Meanwhile, IBM and Ross also emerged as new bidders for satyam.