"We will reach out to every single voice in the industry that matters," said Subroto Bagchi, co-founder, Mindtree.
Mindtree's response to the hostile takeover by L&T's 'done with dil and pyaar' was this: No, there was no love involved. It is a corporate world's #MeToo movement.
It sums up all the promoters wanted to convey to the media. There was no mention of any strategy or what the company plans to do.
"We will reach out to every single voice in the industry that matters," said Subroto Bagchi, co-founder, Mindtree.
While the company did not comment on any future plans, Rostow Ravanan, CEO, said: "Our option right now is that our message and our side of the story gets heard. Reach out to shareholder and investor perspective and convince them our point of view."
The company has a board meeting scheduled on March 20 to discuss the share buyback programme. Though the open offer by L&T makes it a moot point, Ravanan said the company could go ahead with the programme with 75 percent approval from the board members .
"We can share more details only after the board meeting tomorrow," he added.
While a buyout by larger firms like L&T is a dream come true for many entrepreneurs, for the founders of Mindtree, a company they nurtured for 20 years, it was never the part of the company's agenda.
"It is welcome only when the agreement is mutual," Ravanan pointed out. "No startups should be forced into this situation," he added.
Confirming that L&T did reach out to Mindtree few years back for a takeover, the deal did not go through as the founders rejected it. Apart from the fact that the company wanted to be independent, Ravanan said the merger and acquisition will destroy the value.
One could sense a strong sense of hostility, contrary to the placating tone SN Subrahmanyan, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, took during his interaction with the media early on March 19 regarding the takeover.
The fact that L&T is looking to buy initial investor and largest stakeholder of Mindtree VG Siddhartha's 20.3 per cent has been going on for close to three months.
Though there were reports that Mindtree is looking for a white knight were going rounds, nothing materialised. Even now the company is not willing to comment on the future course of action or inaction despite knowing the takeover was imminent.
According to Natarajan, the company can act only based on the facts and not media speculations. "We have got a new set of facts only yesterday night and we will take action based on that," he added.
Ravanan said that the existing large scale investors such as Nalanda has expressed full support. Assuring that most of their stakeholders are on their side, Ravanan said however this will impact the company business.
"If L&T continues in this path, customers are going to think about giving business. At the end of the day, L&T has to answer if the deal is driven by a reckless pursuit of scale or ego," he added.
