Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Ramalinga Raju may face 10 year jail Satyam Computers’ chief, B. Ramalinga Raju, ambushed investors and Corporate India on Wednesday, admitting to long-running fraud of about Rs 8,000 crores in accounting and said the company did not have the money that it had claimed it had. He resigned later, saying his last-ditch efforts to fill the “fictitious assets with real ones” through the attempt to acquire Maytas failed. Mr Raju, who faces arrest, added that no other board member was aware of the financial irregularities. His brother and managing director, Mr B. Rama Raju, stepped down as well, days ahead of its January 10 board meeting. Mr Raju will still be the chairman of Satyam Computers till the board is expanded. The news sent Satyam shares and the equity markets into a tailspin. The stock lost 90 per cent wip ing off more than Rs 10,000 crore market capitalisation. Trading in Maytas Infra was stopped because of the size of its fall. The New York Stock Exchange halted trading in Satyam...

Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are vying to buy Rediff.com India Ltd., the Hindustan Times reported citing an unnamed source. The paper said the potential takeover could value the Mumbai, India-based news, entertainment, shopping and search site at close to $1 billion. In addition to Mountain View based Google and Sunnyvale based Yahoo , the paper said Time Warner Inc.'s America On Line unit may be a suitor. Besides the Web site, Rediff.Com India limited publishes two weekly newspapers aimed at Indian-Americans, India Abroad and India in New York. Rediff share price has risen recently on speculation that the company may be a takeover target. It’s possible that Rediff could be in talks, but speculation that it’s Google or Yahoo that is looking to acquire Rediff is exactly that: speculation, and with no basis in fact. On recent history, Google and Yahoo are actually unlikely suitors; although Rediff’s market cap and therefore rough takeover price of $738.9million would put it into the...

Deccan Chronicle: SHAUKAT H. MOHAMMED If you think that the mails you have seen sending or forwarding e-mails using Yahoo! of Gmail or other free Web-based mail cannot be traced, think again. Each and every mail can be tracked back and you could be in a world of hurt if you have forwarded sensitive stuff, or vulgar stuff for that matter. The following case should illustrate just how careful you need to be with your emailing habits. Admittedly this has happened, is happening, in the United States, but it is equally germane anywhere around the world . First, some quick facts of the case: A former employee, let’s call him Mr. X, of Source Media, which publishes financial market information, has been arrested and charged for reading confidential e-mails about pending personnel moves and for sending e-mail messages to the affected employees, tipping them off that their jobs were in jeopardy. Mr X had been director of information technology at Source Media, which employs over 1,000 people, b...

The former chief executive of Computer Associates International Inc. was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $8 million on Thursday in an accounting fraud scandal estimated to have cost investors $400 million at one of the world’s largest software companies. Mr Sanjay Kumar, 44, had pleaded guilty in April to obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges at the company, which since has been renamed CA Inc. “I know that I was wrong and there was no excuse for my conduct,” Mr Kumar told the judge while reading impassively from a statement at his sentencing at federal court in Brooklyn. “I do apologise for my mistakes and ask for forgiveness from all involved.” Under federal sentencing guidelines, Mr Kumar could have faced life in prison but the judge called that punishment unreasonable. Prosecutor Eric Komitee argued Mr Kumar should be severely punished as the architect of an elaborate cover-up that was “the most brazen in the modern era of corporate crime.” The defence sough...