Satyam, Enron were almost alike, except on saved jobs front

NEW DELHI: For all the bad odour around the name of Satyam, dubbed 'India's Enron', the company has succeeded in saving thousands of jobs by selling itself to a healthier firm, unlike the US energy trading giant, which went belly up in 2001.

Here are some similarities and differences between the two scams that shook the business world equally.

Enron started business as an energy supplier in 1985. Two years later Satyam set up shop to provide IT services to companies abroad.

By 1996, Enron started trading in energy contracts and by December 2000 claimed that its profits tripled in just two years. By then in India, Satyam had grown to become the country's fourth-largest software exporter.

Enron hid its debts to make growth look impressive, Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju too inflated cash and bank balances, reported accrued interest that was non-existent, understated liabilities and over-stated debtors' position.

Even when it was close to collapsing, Enron came across as a high-growth company; Satyam too was ranked high by the international media, which said the IT company was catching up fast with the Big Three Indian software exporters -- TCS, Infosys and Wipro.