The spat between Narayan Murthy and Infosys has once again come into the limelight, with Narayan Murthy asking the company to make the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher report public. However, the company has clearly stated that no such report will be made public.
In his recent communication to the management, Narayan Murthy has put some serious allegations on the top management. He has also questioned the timing of resignation of some of the top management executives at Infosys. Another issue is with the resignation of Ritika Suri. Ritika was a member of the team which finalised the acquisition of Panaya, a firm based in Israel.
The acquisition of Panaya has been under questions. A global law firm had conducted an investigation on the same and as soon as the report gave a clean chit to Ritika, she quit Infosys in June this year. Narayan Murthy’s allegations also hold weight due to the fact that Ritika Suri has been long known to Vishal Sikka (CEO – Infosys). Both the top executives worked together at SAP before they both joined Infosys.
Prior to quitting Infosys, Ritika was heading corporate development and ventures. According to Murthy, the untimely resignation of a number of top executives, including Americas Head Sandeep Dadlani, Anirban Dey, chief business officer of Edge products at EdgeVerve, and Yusuf Bashir, global head of Infosys’ $500-million innovation fund.
Panaya was acquired by Infosys in 2015 for ₹1300 crores ($200 Million). It has come under the lens of SEBI and exchange commission and a probe was ordered to look into the same. The summary findings of the report were made public by Infosys in June, which showed suspicious payouts made to top executives including its chief financial officer, Rajiv Bansal.
In an email statement, the company stated “The investigation involved interviews of over 50 witnesses in India, the US, and elsewhere, the review of company policies, board minutes, public filings and internal documents, the collection, search and review by Gibson, Dunn attorneys of many thousands of internal emails and attachments, the use of forensic accounting experts to analyse technical and financial information, the review of public filings and media accounts in multiple countries, the review of the CAM reports and supporting documentation, and other investigative measures.”
With the latest issue, Infosys board has once again come in a direct face off with Narayan Murthy and other former executives of the company. Business Standard quoted a former senior executive saying that the move of not making the report public has been raising more questions.
The development comes at a time when Sikka is getting ready to celebrate the completion of 3 years as Infosys CEO. In a recent email to the employees, he had asked them to keep the past problems aside and look for a brighter future, the same was linked to his spat with Narayan Murthy and other board members, which has been going on for a few months now.