From Turnaround to AI Growth: What Rahul Singhal Inherits at Innodata – C-Suite Transitions

Companies that were focused on business process outsourcing (BPO) and data processing found a new lease on life when LLMs and the latest incarnation of AI captured the public imagination. The pace of work for these companies accelerated, especially if they already had contracts with tech giants that were pouring money and resources into this AI arms race.

When we saw the appointment of a new CEO at Innodata (INOD), I was immediately reminded of TaskUs (TASK), a company that the co-founders and Blackstone (BX) attempted to take private last year. The co-founders along with Blackstone owned 80.50% of the stock and had 97% voting power.

The 14% premium they were paying for the company and the valuation (less than 7 times estimated 2025 EBITDA) caused minority shareholders, including an activist, to push back on the $16.50 per share price. The acquisition price was well below the company’s IPO of $23 (first-day close was $29) and seemed low given how rapidly the company was growing both revenue and earnings due to the AI tailwind.

In most cases, these situations result in a higher price and the deal closes. We covered the TaskUs deal as a spotlight idea in our October 2025 newsletter just days before minority shareholders rejected the offer and the deal fell apart. We didn’t mind being bag holders in this case because of how attractive the business looked even in the absence of a deal. We continue to be bag holders to this day, with a big loss to show for it despite the $3.65 per share special dividend we received in March of this year.

Innodata has fared significantly better with a gain of nearly 47% over the last year. I have personally held a position in the company since the start of this year.

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