The board of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading Information technology consulting firm based out of India, is reportedly planning to convene later this week to consider a new share buyback program to buy equity shares of the firm. The meeting is scheduled to be held on the 7th of October 2020, as per a regulatory filing.
Back in 2018 the IT firm had undertaken an extensive share buyback program that was estimated to be worth over $2.1 billion. At the aforementioned meeting, the Mumbai-based company’s board is also projected to consider the financial results of the company for the third quarter that ended in September.
Additionally, during the meeting, the company would also be considering the declaration of second interim dividend of the shares held by the equity shareholders attending the meeting.
The 2018 $2.1 billion share buyback program had entailed over 76.1 million shares that were priced at approximately $28 per equity share. The firm had announced the mega-buyback program as part of its long-term policy of capital allocation to return excess cash to the company shareholders.
Under a separate filing, the company stated that in the matter of EPIC Systems Corporation, it would be offering over $166 million as exceptional item, within the financial outcomes for the six and three months that ended on September 30, 2020.
For the uninitiated, back in October of 2014, EPIC had reportedly filed a legal claim in the Western District Madison, Wisconsin court against TCS. The legal claim alleged that the IT firm had infringed Epic's proprietary information.
In its filing, TCS apparently stated that on 20th of August 2020, US Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, Chicago, had returned a verdict on an appeal that was filed by TCS on the claim to reduce the damages award. The Court of Appeals stated that the award of punitive damages of over $280 million was constitutionally excessive and subsequently vacated the award and also directed the U.S. Trial Court to once again reassess what punitive damages need to be paid.
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