Tech Mahindra Ltd. was named the successful bidder for a one-third stake in Satyam Computer Services, effectively gaining control and likely catapulting it into the heavyweight league of software-services businesses. Venturbay Consultants Pvt. Ltd., a unit of Tech Mahindra, will pay 17.6 billion rupees ($351 million) for 302.76 million Satyam. The 58-rupee-a-share-offer is a 23% premium to Satyam's closing price of April 9. The decision ends a prolonged search to select a strategic investor for Satyam. It comes three months after former Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju unveiled the bombshell that prompted India's largest corporate-account fraud inquiry. […]

Once quoted at a price of Rs 542 per share, Satyam Computer on Monday went under the hammer for Rs 58 a share- about one-tenth of the level the IT company enjoyed about a year-ago, when no one had any inkling about the scam being perpetuated there. Tech Mahindra, which emerged as a winner in the race to acquire fraud-hit Satyam Computer, has bid the highest price of Rs 58 per share and would have to shell out an aggregate of about Rs 2,889 crore for 51 per cent stake in the company. Based on the bid price, market capitalisation of the expanded equity base of Satyam would be around Rs 5,600 crore. Months before the scam at Satyam had come to light with confessions of its founder and former chairman B Ramalinga Raju, the Satyam scrip had hit a 52-week high of Rs 542 in May last year. The IT firm's market capitalisation had been over Rs 36,600 crore at that time. […]