Vishal Sikka quit as Infosys CEO on Friday, blaming the company's founder for a "continuous drumbeat of distractions" and accusations that kept him from doing his job.
Sikka took over as CEO of the Indian company in 2014 to transform and grow it. Infosys did grow about 25 percent since Sikka took over, but longstanding conflicts with the company’s founders finally got to a point where Sikka felt he couldn’t “continue to create value” in the “untenable environment,” Bloomberg reported.
A “continuous drumbeat of distractions” from founder and former chairman Narayana Murthy about Sikka's abilities also contributed to the resignation, Sikka said, Reuters reported. Murthy accused the company of corporate governance lapses in February and more recently questioned the integrity of the directors and management, even though the board said it didn’t intend to ask Murthy to have any formal role in the firm’s governance.
Pravin Rao will take over as interim CEO and Sikka will become executive vice chairman until a new CEO is found, Reuters reported.
Sikka’s job in turning Infosys around was a difficult one, as the IT industry in India has suffered a slowdown of new business from western clients and now faces visa rule changes that may make it more difficult to do international business, Reuters noted.
Infosys has been working toward advances in automation, cloud computing, and data analytics, but has not yet seen big results from these changes.
Infosys stock dropped up to 13 percent on the news Friday, which equaled a $3.5 billion loss in market value, Bloomberg reported.
Twitter users lamented the conflict and the loss of Sikka.
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