Wipro drops Satyam from rival list

Scam-hit Satyam seems to be losing its status as a noteworthy rival for the top Indian IT firms, as Wipro has become the second major player in this space after Infosys to drop its name from the list of competitors.

Satyam used to be a regular in the list of competitors mentioned by its larger peers like Infosys and Wipro in their annual report filings with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, Satyam's name is conspicuously absent in Wipro's latest annual report filing for the financial year ended March 31, 2009. Prior to this, Infosys also dropped Satyam's name from its list of noteworthy rivals in its latest annual report filing, filed with SEC earlier this month.

All the three Indian IT firms, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam are listed in the US - Infosys on Nasdaq and the rest two on the New York Stock Exchange.

Before it was hit by the country's biggest-ever fraud admitted to by its founder and then chairman Ramalinga Raju in January, Satyam was known as the fourth-biggest software exporter from the country after TCS, Infosys and Wipro.

Satyam Computer has already embarked upon a revival path after its government-appointed board finalised a deal to sell controlling stake of 51 per cent in the company to domestic conglomerate Mahindra Group.