More often than not, when the high and mighty are plucked from their seats and humbled, right thinking members of society tend to sympathise or experience tristesse. But when selfish, crass and ill-mannered high-fliers are exposed for what they are and brought down to earth with a thud, one can’t help experiencing schadenfreude — an untranslatable German word denoting pleasure in the misfortune of others. Regrettably, schadenfreude is what your editor experienced following the exposure of attempted fraud and chicanery at the top in the Hyderabad-based once-upon-a-time blue- chip information technology and IT-enabled services company, Satyam Computer Services (SCS) Ltd — routinely ranked among India’s top four IT companies.
For those who came in late, on December 16 the SCS board of directors passed a resolution to invest almost the entire corpus of the publicly listed company’s reserves aggregating $1.6 billion (Rs.7,680 crore), in the purchase of equity shares of Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties, two real estate companies promoted and managed by the sons of SCS promoter-chairman B. Ramalinga Raju. Following a huge media outcry (only 8.5 percent of SCS’ issued capital is held by the promoter Raju family; the rest by institutional investors and the public), the deal was reversed the very next day.
In the meanwhile, outraged shareholders of the company — shocked by the blatant attempt of the chairman and compliant board members to enrich themselves at the expense of SCS shareholders — dumped the company’s shares in India and abroad. Currently the company’s equity share which was quoted at Rs.544 in May this year, is quoted at Rs.160 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, suffering a market capitalisation loss of Rs.6,100 crore during the past two weeks.
Be that as it may, why should the editors of EducationWorld — far removed from the world of industry and commerce — experience schadenfreude over the hammering of SCS? Well, because for several years we have been writing, telephoning and faxing Ramalinga Raju, the now-disgraced chairman of SCS, for access to a show-piece education initiative which the company has reportedly been running in the rural boondocks of Andhra Pradesh. But not a word of acknowledgement. Like they say in Blighty: God pays his debts.