Infosys founder Narayana Murthy revealed that he once applied to join Wipro but was rejected, leading him to establish Infosys along with six other engineers.
Former Wipro chairman Azim Premji later told Murthy that he made a mistake by not hiring him, the Infosys founder told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. Murthy and his wife, Sudha Murty, said that if he was hired, then Wipro would have no competition.
Murthy and his friends founded Infosys in 1981 with a seed money of Rs 10,000 given by Sudha.
Infosys is currently valued at Rs 6.65 lakh crore while Wipro stands at Rs 2.43 lakh crore, as per data available on January 12.
Murthy was the CEO of Infosys from 1981 to 2002, following which he served as the board chairman from 2002 to 2006 and later as chief mentor. Though he retired in 2011, he returned to Infosys as the executive chairman and director for a year as the company performing below the industry's growth average. Later, he became the chairman emeritus.
On the other hand, Premji diversified that vegetable oil business he had inherited into an IT services solutions provider that Wipro is today. His son Rishad Premji took over the firm in 2019.
