Buyback plans unchanged; difficult to see a role for Murthy: Infosys

Infosys Co-Chairman Ravi Venkatesan also said he was not in contention for the CEO's post

Vishal Sikka’s move to executive vice-chairman from chief executive officer will make no difference to his commitment to the company, said Infosys Chairman Ramaswami Seshasayee at a press conference on Friday hours after Sikka's resignation as CEO and MD.

“Vishal is an excellent technical guy, there is no doubt about that. He has blossomed into a high performing CEO too,” Infosys Co-Chairman Ravi Venkatesan said. 

Venkatesan also said that he was not in contention for the role of CEO. Further, the IT major's co-chairman said that it was difficult to consider a role for co-founder N R Narayana Murthy at Infosys. 

Seshasayee made it clear that there would be no change in Infosys' buyback plan. He added that no evidence was found on any of the allegations raised by whistle blowers. Further, responding to a question regarding a statement by Murthy, he said that it was not possible that world-renowned, independent audit firms connived with the board, not once but twice. Referring to the recent letter by the co-founder, he said that taking every anonymous complaint to shareholders would be destructive for the organisation. 

Seshasayee also said there was no dissent within the board of Infosys. He added that there has been continuous dialogue with various shareholders.

Murthy on Friday denied the allegations leveled against him by the Infosys board.

"Anguished by allegations, tone and tenor of statements made by Infosys board, below my dignity to respond to baseless insinuations," said Murthy on Friday after an Infosys press release blamed the co-founder's "continuous assault" against Sikka for the latter's resignation.

"Some shareholders have said it’s hard to believe a report by a set of lawyers hired by a set of accused, giving clean chit to the accused," Murthy said, adding, "Sikka repeatedly brought deteriorating standards of corporate governance to the Infosys Board."

Sikka, for his part, said that it became difficult to deal with continuous allegations and noise around the same issues. Sikka said that it was taking a toll on the company and had become an untenable situation. He said, "I am still an executive of the company, responsible for strategy and key client relationships. I have no qualms, I have not thought about what I will do next. I am here until the March 31 next year. Business continues as usual." 

Sikka also said that Infosys was constantly hiring new talent and that the IT major was not worried about any impact on international hiring.