Bagchi resigns from Odisha govt, to rejoin MindTree

Subroto Bagchi, the founder of Bengaluru-based IT firm MindTree, has resigned from Odhisha government, to rejoin the IT company as it faced a hostile takeover bid.

“An imminent threat of a hostile takeover of Mindtree has made me to resign from the Government to be able to go, save the company. I must protect the Tree from people who have arrived with bulldozers & saw chains to cut it down so that in its place, they can build a shopping mall,” Bagchi, who was till recently Chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority, said on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

It was reported Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is set to launch a hostile bid to acquire mid-tier IT services company Mindtree on Monday evening. It will be buying Coffee Day founder and Mindtree’s largest shareholder, V G Siddhartha, and proceed with an open offer to public shareholders, almost Rs 7,000 crore.

Bagchi in a series of tweets called the MindTree as the national asset that is not meant for sale. “Mindtree has not been designed as an “asset” to be bought and sold. It is a national resource. It has a unique culture that humanizes the idea of business. It sets the standards of corporate governance. I need to be there in its time of difficulty. Hence the hard decision to return,” he said.

Bagchi, who co-founded Mindtree in 1999, returned to his native state Odisha in 2016, after stepping down from his role as executive chairman. His return to Bengaluru can be seen as a buildup to a bitter boardroom battle that the current management is preparing for to protect any rival technology firm from coming on board.