Zero revenues? Tech firms can still pay employees for 4-10 months!

Tech titan Bill Gates be­lieved that Microsoft should have am­ple cash so that it can survive a year without a single dollar in sales. With that as his intent he built huge cash reserves for Microsoft.
With Gates fun-da in mind, The Times of India de­cided to do a raincheck on Indian tech bellweathers. What if suddenly some of our biggest IT companies face a zero-revenue scenario? If they ain't fired, employees at the top four IT firms can be sure that they will be paid their monthly pay cheques! The Big Four - Infosys, TCS, Satyam and Wipro - can pay salaries to their combined battalion of 3.7 lakh employees for about 4-10 months, an analysis shows. Assuming a no revenue scenario, Satyam, which reported a staff strength of 52,000 odd at the end of September, would be able to last the longest i.e. 9 months.
If variable pay is cut (which is likely), then the Hyderabad-based firm would be able to pay staffers another extra month. At the end of September 30, Satyam's balance sheet had total cash and equivalents totalling to Rs 5,361 crore or $1.15 billon. In the similar breath, Infosys has enough cash to pay its employees for 8 months, assuming no revenues. If Infosys' variable pay is cut drastically, this period extends to aroUnd 9 months. Infosys with most of its Rs 7,821 crore in banks, reported 1 lakh plus employees on its payroll in September.
With close to Rs 6,000 crore at the company's disposal, Wipro's 97,000-odd employees can expect to get their pay cheques for 7 months, if variable pay is cut. In contrast to the other three, the country's largest software exporter TCS can pay salaries for a maximum 4 months to its 1.21-lakh employees.
"On the basis of safety and cush­ion, Infosys and Satyam are most com­fortably placed, followed by Wipro and TCS. Infosys and Satyam can feel both smug and predatory However, this is not to suggest that Wipro and TCS are under stress, just that they may have fewer options available, given their cash positions," IT analyst Viju George of Edelweiss said.
While Infosys and Satyam liter­ally have most of their 'money in the bank' (largely with scheduled banks), Wipro has only one-third of its kitty in cash and bank balances.