Satyam, FIFA deal on track

Satyam was the first Indian IT company to become the official IT service provider for the FIFA World Cup. But after Ramalinga Raju scored a self-goal, Satyam almost lost this deal. CNBC-TV18's Kritika Saxena finds that Satyam will continue to play ball with FIFA.

Here is a verbatim transcript of Kritika Saxena's comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

In December 2007, Satyam signed a multimillion-dollar deal with FIFA to provide IT service solutions. But CNBC-TV18 learns that the deal hit a speed breaker after the Satyam scam, with FIFA threatening to call it off. But now the game is back on after some pricing changes.

Sridhar Maturi, Head, Sports Marketing said, "Subsequent to the unfortunate crisis that we were all exposed to, there is no drop. In fact FIFA was very satisfied with the kind of deliveries that we were doing. The solutions that are being offered are comprehensive, across the board, on the back end for managing the systems, existing IT systems and also rolling out solutions that mange the entire event itself."

CNBC-TV18 learns that the original deal was to the tune of USD 100 million, with around USD 25 million each for four tournaments.

That price, we learn, has been re-negotiated to USD 15 million. Satyam says these numbers were speculative.

The rights package also includes a wide range of advertisements for Satyam with on ground hoardings and promotion along with the event. Satyam may also be able to carry the world cup and use it for promotional events. And that's not all.

Sridhar Maturi further said, "After we have joined the FIFA fraternity, a lot of enquiries have come for some of the bigger events like the pintorolum pix in the US, the Singapore youth Olympics. Some of these have opened door for Satyam."