
IT titans at war: Cognizant denies slow-roll plot by its CEO to hurt Infosys
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The high-stakes battle in a US court between two of India’s biggest IT services companies—Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp and Infosys Ltd—took a curious turn this week.
New Jersey-headquartered Cognizant labelled “preposterous" Infosys’s allegations that the former had hired current chief executive officer (CEO) S. Ravi Kumar to slow down the development of Infosys’s healthcare software product (Helix).
Kumar, an Infosys veteran, left Infosys in October 2022 and joined Cognizant as CEO in January 2023. In a filing on 10 March in a Dallas court, Cognizant said Infosys’s allegations were absurd and implausible.
“It thus defies common sense to suggest that Cognizant’s board of directors would select the company’s CEO—or ‘time’ his appointment—in order to snub Infosys, or for any reason other than to install a company leader who can promote Cognizant’s business growth and strategic interests," read Cognizant’s court filing. “It likewise blinks reality to suggest that Cognizant would select a CEO, or hire the other two named employees, based on their alleged slow-rolling of Helix, as opposed to their demonstrated skills in the marketplace," the filing read.
Also read | Cognizant walks a tightrope as activist investor Mantle Ridge builds $1 billion stake This is the first time that Cognizant has responded to Infosys’s complaint against Kumar, which was filed on 9 January in a counter-complaint after Cognizant sued Bengaluru-headquartered Infosys in August last year for stealing trade secrets regarding its proprietary healthcare software. Infosys had denied the allegations and responded with its own counterclaims, suggesting that Cognizant has not properly identified the trade secrets
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