The deal announced today also means Narendra Patni saying a hard good bye to a firm he co-founded with his two brothers back in 1978. Many consider him the real brain behind the company and in many ways the real doyen of India�s Offshoring Industry.

The man, who is said to have a weakness for red wine and BMW cars, started what was probably the first offshoring work through his firm Data Conversion Inc way back in 1972, before any of the top IT firms started their business (Wipro was then a oil company and TCS though founded a few years ago started offshoring only in 1974). This firm got handwritten data into the magnetic format primarily based out of its Pune office and catered to various organisations in the US including American Film Institute.

Narendra or Naren as many call him, who had earlier worked with Forrester Consulting Group besides US Trust Company of New York and as a consultant to Arthur D. Little, Inc, joined hands with his brothers and formed Patni in 1978. In the initial years it was engaged in computer time rental, resale of imported computer hardware besides the alliance with Data General Corp for computer hardware systems. The rest is history.

While his brothers were also closely involved, Narendra ran the show at Patni. However, differences peaked in 2007 when Gajendra and Ashok decided to move out and venture into other businesses.

Rumour mills also had it that Narendra was keen to keep his executive position to ultimately give the reins of the company to his son Anirudh Patni who was already in a senior executive role in the software services company. Some even speculated that the other two brothers teamed up with General Atlantic not to renew the CEO�s role of Narendra that expired in December and thereby roping in an outsider to lead the company. Jeya Kumar�s appointment in many ways sealed the fate of what was to happen eventually even as Narendra remained as an executive chairman all this while.