BENGALURU, April 17 -- India's Wipro announced a record share buyback of up to Rs.15,000 crore ($1.61 billion) on Thursday after reporting a slight quarterly revenue miss, as clients held back tech spending in energy and banking sectors while business from key customer Estee Lauder slowed. Consolidated sales for India's fourth-largest software firm in the three months ended March 31 rose 7.7% to Rs.24,236 crore ($2.60 billion), missing analysts' average estimate of Rs.24,363 crore, according to data compiled by LSEG. Last week, the country's top IT firm, Tata Consultancy Services , beat quarterly revenue and profit estimates, while allaying concerns about AI tools disrupting its core business. French cosmetics major Estee Lauder roped in Accenture as an additional IT vendor in March, hurting its contribution to Wipro's topline. The dent to Wipro's revenue was made larger as companies delayed tech spending due to the launch of artificial intelligence-based tools and the Middle East war that caused geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty. In February, the release of US AI company Anthropic's plugins, which could automate some finance and marketing functions, caused a global tech selloff on fears of disruption. The Bengaluru-based IT firm forecast revenue in the ongoing first quarter to grow in the range of 2% decline to a flat performance on a sequential basis, implying a range of $2.6 billion to $2.65 billion. Net profit fell 1.9% to Rs.3,502 crore for the quarter, marginally below analysts' estimate of Rs.3,507 crore. Three of the five verticals fell, led by energy's 5.9% decline. Banking vertical, its largest, contributing to around third of its revenue, too fell 0.5%. Wipro's total deal wins came in at $3.5 billion, up from $3.33 billion-a six-quarter low-in the prior quarter and down from $4 billion a year earlier....