Vishal Sikka likely to join HPE as CTO: Report

New Delhi: After stepping down as Infosys CEO & MD, Vishal Sikka is likely to join the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) as chief technology officer (CTO), reports Times of India, quoting multiple sources.

HPE is an American multinational enterprise information technology company based in Palo Alto, California, founded on 1 November 2015 as part of splitting of the Hewlett-Packard company.

Meanwhile, Sikka has termed his dramatic resignation as CEO of the global software major Infosys as one of the hardest decisions of his life.

"It was one of the hardest decisions of my life, but I feel that it had to be done," Sikka, 50, told `Forbes India` in his first interview since his decision to quit on August 18 caught stakeholders unawares and tanked the IT major`s stock to a three-year low of Rs 884.20 on the bourse.

Though the company`s Board accepted Sikka`s resignation and appointed him as Executive Vice-Chairman on an annual salary of USD 1 till the new CEO takes over by March 31, 2018, he resigned on Thursday night from the post. The Board accepted it with immediate effect.

Quoting German novelist Hermann Hesse in the context of his exit from the iconic company three years after he joined as its first non-founder CEO in 2014, Sikka said he believed in living gracefully and letting go of things not meant for him though some think holding on makes them strong.

"It is freedom from the known that helps you renew yourself," asserted Sikka, who has been inspired by the teachings of Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthi.

On his achievements, he said: "We grew revenues steadily while keeping a strong focus on margins, closing the first quarter of 2017-18 at 24.1 percent operating margin, beating our competitors for the first time in many years." Meanwhile, revenue per employee grew for six quarters in a row.

Sikka however said that his departure would "not stall the company`s push into AI, automation, computing and data analytics".