Mattoo

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Summary Kannan co-founded 24/7 in April 2000. 24/7 was Kannan’s second start-up; his first was purchased by a technology company in 1999. 24/7 began as a business process outsourcing company focused on customer service functions. It offered labor services for chat and e-mail management out of a contact center it built in Bangalore, India. Initially, 24/7 planned to offer its services to Silicon Valley start-ups. However, after the dot com bubble burst in 2000, the company shifted its strategy to focus on recruiting Fortune 500 companies as customers. Lacking connections into those companies, Kannan and his co-founders considered engaging advisors with more extensive networks among Fortune 500 executives. One of the people Kannan wanted to act as an advisor was Gupta. At the time, Gupta was head of the prestigious management consulting firm McKinsey & Company; chairman of the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis; and chairman of the Gates Foundation board. Like Kannan, Gupta was born in India. Kannan had followed Gupta’s career in the press and considered him a role model. A 24/7 investor introduced Kannan to Gupta’s protégé at McKinsey,…