The Economic Times of India reported on Wednesday that Bangalore-based company InfoSys, which provides outsourced tech support and other services for Apple, has fired the CFO of its business process outsourcing unit Abraham Mathews for failing to comply with the company’s code of conduct.
The report did not provide specific details about the violations that Mathews committed, although initial reports indicate that the executive was ousted for overbilling Apple. According to Techmeme editor Mahendra Palsule, the news was “only just announced as an insider exclusive by the TV channel of [The Economic Times].”
The Economic Times adds that InfoSys BPO chief executive Gautam Thakkar has also resigned on “moral grounds,” with plans to leave the company on November 30th. We’ve reached out to Apple and InfoSys for comment and will update this story as more information becomes available.
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Update: The Economic Times is out with a new report claiming that at least six more employees at one of InfoSys BPO’s European subsidiaries are to be sacked following the purported overcharging of Apple, which some sources say lasted for over 18 months.
A company spokeswoman said on Wednesday: “The financial irregularities are not material in nature and the company has already made required disclosures. The company has taken disciplinary action on employees. We will not be able to comment on client-specific matters or on investigation as they are confidential in nature.”
While Infosys has announced a change in leadership, the overbilling could be damaging to Apple’s already-hesitant attitude towards outsourcing in India.
“Apple for long has been debating on engaging with Indian outsourcers and this incident will certainly not go down well,” said Pradeep Mukherji, president of Avasant, a Mumbai-based management consultant that helps companies choose outsourcing firms. “Apple may even want to reconsider its engagement with Infosys BPO.”
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I would love to learn which “tech support and other services for Apple” InfoSys got their $2B/year for.
Would seem a lot more reasonable if it is actually 2B rupees ($32M USD). $2B USD would be $20,000 for every single one of Apple’s 98,000 employees.
Excellent point. The $2B seems extremely excessive.
Makes perfect sense. Definitely wasn’t $2Bn.
“Hello, thank you for calling Apple, my name is Steve, how can I help you today?”
Stupid article, typical innumeracy with American reporters. The annual revenues of infosys are less than $9 billion. There is absolutely no way that any client contributes even $1 billion. NO company spends $2 billion on IT, let alone just the outsourced part. Also, it was the BPO unit that serviced Apple, and it’s revenues are around 650 million per year. Even if Apple were its only client, and it is not, the $2 billion figure comes from some idiot who doesn’t know to count beyond thousand!
Mindless cut-and-paste journalism, and still can’t get the info right. Infosys’s CEO and CFO are NOT stepping down. Read the article that 9to5mac.com rips off, and you’ll see that it’s just a unit-level president and CFO. Maybe still news, but the 9to5mac.com story is 100% wrong and misleading.
Chrissakes, what’s a half billion between us’n pardners, like?