Infosys founder leads boardroom coup as former CEO returns
Outgoings continue at troubled Indian giant as founder boots out CEO and three board members
The founder of Indian outsourcing giant Infosys staged a boardroom coup last night, with four directors ousted and a former CEO returning to steady the ship.
Infosys was plunged into chaos last week when CEO Vishal Sikka announced his shock resignation, citing a series of "malicious" and "personal" attacks from Narayana Murthy, who founded the firm in 1981.
Murthy has now gone a step further, leading a boardroom coup that has seen four board members depart - including Sikka and chairman Ramaswami Seshasayee.
Seshasayee has been replaced by Nandan Nilekani, who co-founded Infosys and served as its chairman between 2002 and 2007.
Outgoing CEO Sikka will no longer stay on until his replacement is found, as was previously planned.
Nilekani said: "I am happy to return to Infosys, now in the role of non-executive chairman, and look forward to working with my colleagues on the board and in executive management on the business opportunities we see before us and delivering benefits to our clients, shareholders, employees and communities.
"I thank Vishal for his service as the CEO of Infosys over the last three years and wish him well in his future endeavours."
Anthony Miller, managing partner at TechMarketView, said the reshuffle at Infosys shares similarities with a previous incident in 2013, when the then CEO was ousted and Murthy was reinstalled.
"Bringing back Nilekani smacks of a previous attempt back in June 2013 to right the wrongs of prior flawed CEO appointments when the Infosys board sidelined then CEO SD Shibulal, by reinstalling Murthy, [who was] then chairman emeritus, as executive chairman.
"Nilekani will have to rebuild the board and lead the search for a new CEO, while trying to steady the ship - and client and investor nerves. But as much as I admire Nilekani, his appointment just cannot be the right answer, just as it wasn't with Murthy in 2013."