Autonomy Co-founder Lynch Loses HP Fraud Case

Mike Lynch, co-founder and former CEO of UK-based big data analytics giant Autonomy, has lost the civil lawsuit brought by Hewlett-Packard (HP), relating to its 2011 $11bn (£8.2bn) acquisition of Autonomy. Lynch may be extradited to the US to face criminal fraud charges, but will appeal.

Founded in the UK in 1996, Autonomy initially specialised in the analysis of unstructured big data, and the development of enterprise search and knowledge management apps using adaptive pattern recognition techniques based on Bayesian inference. Following its acquisition by HP, what became known as HP Autonomy offered a portfolio including Voice of the Customer, media intelligence and big data analytics.

Just a year after acquiring Autonomy, HP announced an $8.8bn write-down of the company's valuation, and then sued Autonomy's former CFO Sushovan Hussain for about $5bn, claiming that he had been involved in the inflation of Autonomy's reported revenues, revenue growth, and gross margins. Hussain was later jailed for five years after a US jury found him guilty of fraud relating to the sale.

On Friday, Hewlett-Packard won its civil fraud case against Lynch (pictured) after a high court judge ruled that he had deceived the US firm into overpaying for Autonomy by manipulating the firm's accounts to inflate the value of the company. Following the verdict, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the extradition of Lynch to the US to face criminal fraud charges. However, Lynch's lawyer, Chris Morvillo, said his client firmly denies the US criminal charges, adding: 'He is a British citizen who ran a British company in Britain subject to British laws and rules and that is where the matter should be resolved'.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.