Satyam Computer Services Ltd. was founded in 1987. The company offers information technology (IT) services spanning various sectors, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext.

Satyam's network covers 67 countries across six continents. The company employs 53,000 IT professionals across development centers in India, the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Hungary, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan, Egypt and Australia. It serves over 654 global companies, 185 of which are Fortune 500 corporations. Satyam has strategic technology and marketing alliances with over 50 companies. Apart from Hyderabad, it has development centers in India at Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Delhi, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, and Visakhapatnam.

 On 7 January 2009, company Chairman Ramalinga Raju resigned after notifying its board members and the SEBI that he had falsified accounts.Raju affirmed in a letter to the board that neither he nor the managing director had benefited financially from the inflated revenues. He claimed that none of the board members had any knowledge of the situation in which the company was placed. He noted that Satyam's balance sheet as of the September 30, 2008, carried inflated figures for cash and bank balances of INR 5,040 crore (as against INR 5,361 crore reflected in the books). It carried an accrued interest of INR 376 crore which was non-existent. An understated liability of INR 1,230 crore on account of funds was arranged by himself. An overstated debtors' position of INR 490 crore (as against INR 2,651 crore in the books).

He stated that:

"What started as a marginal gap between actual operating profit and the one reflected in the books of accounts continued to grow over the years. It has attained unmanageable proportions as the size of company operations grew significantly (annualised revenue run rate of Rs 11,276 crore in the September quarter of 2008 and official reserves of Rs 8,392 crore). As the promoters held a small percentage of equity, the concern was that poor performance would result in a takeover, thereby exposing the gap. The aborted Maytas acquisition deal was the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones. It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.”