Satyam, the fourth largest software exporter in India, is sitting on huge contracts across verticals such as aerospace & defence, automotive, banking, chemicals, education, energy & utilities, financial services, industrial equipment, insurance and manufacturing to name but ten.

The key ones, of course, are BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), manufacturing, engineering services, automobile, travel and logistics that are ripe for the picking.

The company also boasts clients such as General Electric, Nestle, Qantas, Fujitsu, Kimberly-Clark and Telstra. But this fiasco has put a question mark on these verticals. Will Satyam’s competitors like Infosys, Wipro and TCS make a beeline for these clients?

That’s easier asked than answered. It surely would depend of the present status of the projects.

Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro have strength in almost the very same verticals. These three rivals along with HCL, which took over the fourth position from Satyam, can boost their portfolios by adding Satyam’s clients.

Messing around with Satyam is risky business. Clients may walk. Key employees are in the job market too. The onus could therefore be the clients’.

A similar case can be cited here. Silverline Technologies was going through financial turmoil which made its major customer, American Express' travel related services company, bit nervous.

In 2002, in order to save the situation, American Express brought in Cognizant to acquire some of Silverline’s assets. The deal got through successfully and Cognizant went on to offer 300 plus jobs to Silverline employees in US, Europe and India. In this particular case, Silverline’s customer, American Express played a pivotal role to turn on the momentum and put the beleaguered Silverline back on track with jobs kept intact.

The new board could play with this option to make companies identify the intricate value of the company as vertical-specific parts. Such approach would help the new board in luring potential takers in the market to acquire and shape up the Hyderabad based software giant rightly.

Kiran Karnik, the former chairman of the industry body Nasscom, is widely respected. He could play a key role in nudging clients and potential players to sit at the negotiating table.  But will he?

Deepak S. Parekh, chairman of HDFC, who is set to be elected as the Chairman of Government-appointed Satyam’s new board, earlier said, "There is a need to study the fundamentals of the company”. Would those fundamentals include bringing the financial backing for such deals?

Would C Achutan, with his investigative skills, set the house in order before such thoughts are even considered?

What remains though are the legal suits and the multiple investigations that seem like minefields that few would like to tread. X