Amid the ongoing board overhaul at Infosys, which would result in a founder-promoter returning at the helm of India’s second largest information technology services company, there was a late evening attempt by a prominent equity fund to grab a lion’s share in the pie of the firm’s control. Global private equity giant Blackstone offered to buy a “significant minority” stake in Infosys, in order to buyout the firm in the wake of the tussle between the founders of the company and its board, CNBC TV18 reported citing unidentified sources.

The television news channel also reported that the Blackstone proposal was raised at Infosys board meeting which was held last night to decide the board’s future course of action and appointment of a new chairman. However, the board rejected Blackstone’s acquisition offer, and instead moved on to appoint Nandan Nilekani as the new Non-Executive Chairman, effectively vesting the control of the company with the founder group.

Notably, Infosys is an investor-owned firm, with the founders owning just over 13% equity stake, in a country where companies are typically controlled by founder-promoters, with their presence on the board as well as well as the active management. Appointment of Nandan Nilekani as the Chairman of Infosys comes in the wake of its MD and CEO Vishal Sikka resigning earlier last week, following a prolonged public spat with the founders led by NR Narayana Murthy over allegations of corporate misgovernance. None of the seven founders were either on the board or in management during the entire drama, till yesterday.

A tussle between chairman emeritus NR Narayana Murthy and the board had threatened to destabilise operations at the Bengaluru-headquartered firm. Chairman R Seshasayee yesterday resigned from the company. Vishal Sikka, who was appointed as executive vice-chairman following his resignation as the CEO, has also now made a complete exit from the company. Ravi Venkatesan, who was co-chairman, will stay on as director while UB Pravin Rao will continue as interim CEO and MD. The return of Nilekani, a former CEO, is expected to assuage the concerns of shareholders, at least in the near term. Since Vishal Sikka stepped down as MD and CEO on August 18, the Infosys stock has lost more than Rs 30,000 crore of market capitalisation.

During the high drama, a lot of institutional investors had raised various concerns, with domestic funds reportedly seeking Nandan Nilekani’s return, while rapping the board for its mishandling of the issue. On the other hand, some others had raised questions over the control of the company and its future course.