Indian Technology/IT News

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<b>Satyam Chairman Resigns After Falsifying Accounts </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->“This is a black day for India, the software sector and corporate governance claims,” Arun Kejriwal, founder of Kejriwal Research & Investment Services, said in Mumbai. “If at all there’s an event that could be the biggest setback for corporate India, it is this.”

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc, and Credit Suisse Group AG suspended coverage of Satyam, which slumped a record 78 percent in Mumbai. The National Stock Exchange removed Satyam from its main Nifty index after the benchmark slumped 6.2 percent.

Satyam’s American depositary receipts fell $8.42, or 90 percent, to 93 cents at 9:14 a.m. in early New York trading.

‘Deep Shock’

“We’re in a deep state of shock by what’s been announced and we’re fairly happy that we sold when we did,” said Greg Kuhnert, a fund manager at Investec Asset Management Ltd. in London, which manages about $10 billion and sold its 0.15 percent stake in Satyam last month. “When we look at further investments in the country, we’ll have to get out a magnifying glass and really examine every bit very closely.”

Satyam maintains computer networks and provides outsourcing services for clients including Citigroup, Nissan Motor Co. and Qantas Airways Ltd. The company employs about 53,000 people in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad and competes with Infosys Technologies Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Wipro Ltd.

“This quarter will be tumultuous for us,” interim Chief Executive Officer Ram Mynampati said in an e-mailed statement. “Rumors will abound and it would be fair to assume that competition will try to leverage it to their advantage.”

<b>Infosys, India’s second-largest software exporter, called the incident “deplorable.”</b>

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