Autonomy: Trial for fraud in HP's billion-euro deal ends with acquittal
The fraud trial surrounding the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard ended with the acquittal of former owner Mike Lynch.
(Image: Lutsenko_Oleksandr/Shutterstock.com)
The trial on fraud allegations against ex-Autonomy owner Mike Lynch has ended with an acquittal on all charges, as reported by the Financial Times (FT). The British technology tycoon had been accused of artificially inflating the value of his company in connection with the sale of his software company to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011, thereby gaining an advantage. HP paid around 11.7 billion US dollars for the company. Lynch himself earned around 500 million pounds sterling from the sale.
A jury in San Francisco found Lynch not guilty on all charges and also acquitted the former manager, lacking evidence. If convicted, Lynch would have faced more than 20 years in prison. Lynch had denied that he himself had embellished Autonomy's business figures to possibly achieve a better sales price.
He claimed that he had concentrated on the technical development of Autonomy's software and had not taken care of the accounting. Instead, Lynch blamed other executives, above all his former CFO, who had already been successfully charged with fraud and sentenced to five years in prison. In addition, the defense lawyers accused HP of not having properly examined the deal and not having prepared the takeover carefully enough. In addition, Lynch had not been involved in the transactions in question, which had simulated a better deal. Former Autonomy financial manager Stephen Chamberlain, who had also been charged, was acquitted.
Lynch was indicted in the USA in 2018 and extradited from the UK after a British court ruled in favor of HP in a similar fraud case in 2022 and awarded the company 4 billion US dollars in compensation. Lynch was under house arrest in the USA. The trial began in March 2024.
"I am delighted with today's verdict and thank the jury for their attention to the facts over the past 10 weeks," Lynch said in a statement.
Return to the UK
Lynch now wants to return to the UK from the USA to devote himself to his family. He also says he wishes to tackle new technical projects.
Lynch was a co-founder of the British software company Autonomy, which was founded in 1996. Autonomy quickly developed into one of the largest companies in the UK. Comparisons have even been drawn between Lynch, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
The software developed by Autonomy was able to extract useful information from unstructured sources such as telephone conversations, emails and videos. The company was sold to HP in 2011. At the time, the deal was considered the largest takeover of a British technology company at 11.7 billion US dollars.
(olb)
