Wipro has recently fixed June 16 as the record date for its Rs 12,000 crore buyback. The company will buy back about 26.97 crore shares from its shareholders on a proportionate basis through a tender offer at Rs 445 per share. Wipro shares ended at Rs 397.25 on Friday. Time travel with Wipro, to see it transition from being a vegetable oil to becoming an IT giant
Older than Independent India, Wipro took its first breath in the aftermath of World War II in 1945. From a traditional, family-run business, it grew into a professional, diversified, global corporation. At twenty-one, Mohamedhusain Hasham Premji took over his late father’s grain trade and expanded into manufacturing. His first project was an oil mill- Western India Vegetable Products
In 1968, After the untimely death of Mohamedhusain at age 51, his son, Azim H. Premji was called home from college at Stanford to take over the management of the family business. By 1971, business nearly doubled from when Azim Premji took over, and in 1975, the company's first departure from its main cooking oil business came about
In 1977, the Indian government decided to throw out the US computer giant IBM over a dispute about investment and intellectual property, creating what Azim Premji saw as a golden business opportunity. Western India Vegetable Products, which was on the rise, formally registered itself as Wipro to be no longer limited by its name
In August 1979, Wipro's consumer care division expanded beyond oil, establishing operations in soaps, toiletries, and baby care products. It also recruited its first members of the Infotech division. Two months later, the company applied for a license to develop, manufacture and market minicomputers
In 1980, Wipro launched information technology services for the domestic market, setting up a crack-team of R&D and marketing managers in Bangalore. As one of India’s leading technology companies, Wipro is today largely known for its IT engineering, and consulting services. But, what brought Wipro into the IT industry was its computer systems business in the 1980s
The origins of Wipro’s most flourishing business in the 1980s and 1990s can be traced back to Bengaluru’s premier institute IISc. “This really was the birth of our IT business – what is now the globally successful business by which Wipro is most known across the world. So, it would be quite accurate to say that the Wipro IT business was born in IISc,” Azim Premji had said in his address at IISc’s convocation ceremony in 2019
In 1981, Wipro ventured into the fledgling IT industry, and two years later, it established software products and exports subsidiary, Wipro Systems Ltd. In 1985, Wipro began to manufacture toilet soaps, PCs, and dot-matrix printers. In 1995, Wipro discarded its PC brand when it formed a joint venture with Acer
By 1989, Wipro had become a diversified manufacturer of computer systems, consumer products, and industrial equipment, but as the 90s opened up, so did another transformation in Wipro’s story. In 1999, Azim Premji officially completed his degree from Stanford through a distance-learning arrangement
As the technology market grew around the world, Wipro dove deeply into IT services and partnerships with leading technology companies. In 1996, Wipro shifted its base to Bangalore (now Bengaluru), where its Headquarters remain today. In 2000, Wipro grew into a one billion-dollar company and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange
On July 31, 2019, Premji retired as the Executive Chairman of Wipro. “It has been an extraordinary journey - growing from being a small vegetable oil company to the diverse global business that we are today. It is the deep commitment and hard work of Wiproites across generations that have helped shape the organization of today,” he wrote in his last letter
In 2019, Rishad Premji succeeded his father the senior Premji as the Chairman of Wipro Limited. In July 2020, Thierry Delaporte took the reins as CEO. As on June 9, 2023, Wipro has a market capitalisation of Rs 2.17 lakh crore