IBM in talks to buy Indian services firm Satyam

IBM is already in talks with the company, and is likely to purchase a majority stake, according to reports in India's Business Standard, which cited sources close to the developments.

Neither firm could immediately provide comment.

The purchase would follow a number of disasters for Satyam, including former chairman Ramalinga Raju's admission in January that he had inflated the company's profits over a period of seven years, amounting to a sum of 50.4bn rupees (US$1bn).

Satyam's stock collapsed by more than 60 per cent following Raju's confession, and the shock and dismay throughout the Indian outsourcing industry brought back memories of Enron in the US.

The firm was also blacklisted by the World Bank in December 2008 for eight years, having been accused of offering indecent benefits to the bank's staff.