TCS Counters Mistry’s Claim That Tata Planned to Sell the Company

Mistry claimed on Tuesday that Ratan Tata had put before JRD Tata a proposal to sell TCS to IBM.

FC Kohli, the first chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), on Wednesday rebutted ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry's claim that Tata Group at one point wanted to sell the software major to global tech giant IBM.

In a media statement issued by TCS, Kohli said he was actively involved in the 1991-92 joint venture between Tata and IBM for hardware manufacturing in India, which was an untapped industry at that time.

I would like to reiterate that at no point at that time was there ever an intention of the Tata Group to sell TCS to IBM.

FC Kohli

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On Tuesday, Cyrus Mistry's office had released a statement raising questions over a host of business decisions taken by Ratan Tata over the years. In the statement, Mistry claimed Ratan Tata had proposed selling TCS to IBM, calling it a "near death experience" for the company. He said Kohli's illness during the period prevented any progress on the matter.

Mistry made his allegations, purportedly, to rebut the charge of not contributing materially to the growth of TCS and JLR.

Cyrus Mistry's office responded to the statements put out by the two Tata Group companies, stating that the ousted chairman of Tata Sons had never claimed that the group intended to sell TCS to IBM.

Mr Mistry agrees with him (FC Kohli) that there was no intention of the Tata Group selling TCS to IBM or to any other company. The statement Mr Mistry made was based on information from sources who were close to JRD Tata who informed him that it was Ratan Tata’s intention, and not the group’s intention, to sell TCS.

Cyrus Mistry’s office

(With inputs from BloombergQuint)