HP Lost £730 Million After Buying Mike Lynch’s Autonomy, Judge Says

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. lost around £730 million ($985 million) after it bought Mike Lynch’s firm Autonomy Corp., a London judge ruled less than a year after the British tech tycoon drowned when his yacht sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily.

Mike Lynch’s estate will face a claim for much of that sum after he lost a London fraud case along with ex-Autonomy chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain. The ruling suggests that HPE will likely only receive a fraction of its $4 billion claim stemming from the huge writedown it took on the British software company.

HPE opted to pursue the damages suit saying it had a “fiduciary duty” to shareholders after winning the fraud claim in 2022 against Lynch and his software firm Autonomy Corp. A lawyer for Lynch’s estate said he would be considering an appeal of both the original ruling and the damages findings.

On Tuesday, Judge Robert Hildyard issued his long-awaited ruling after previously finding that HP overpaid when it bought Autonomy for more than $11 billion.

Lynch had for years fought legal issues related to the 2011 sale. The judge’s decision was originally slated for publication in the fall of 2024.

“I consider that HP’s claim was always substantially exaggerated,” Hildyard said in his judgment. He said there “is more than a grain of truth” in Lynch’s argument that when HP said it had been defrauded by as much as $5 billion, “the figure was not based on detailed analysis.”

While Lynch was acquitted of U.S. criminal charges, the London judge had declared him responsible for creating the illusion of a company larger and more successful than it really was.

“We are pleased that this decision brings us a step closer to the resolution of this dispute,” HPE said. “We look forward to the further hearing at which the final amount of HPE’s damages will be determined.”

In a statement sent by his advisers that Lynch prepared prior to his death, he said the original claim was wide of the mark.

“This result exposes HP’s failure and makes clear that the immense damage to Autonomy was down to HP’s own errors and actions,” Lynch said in the posthumous statement.

Lynch died, along with his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, after his luxury yacht sank in severe weather. He was celebrating his US acquittal with a small group of advisers when the storm struck. His wife, Angela Bacares, managed to escape, while Lynch’s other daughter wasn’t on board at the time.

A UK civil claim automatically ensures that the case passes to the estate of a defendant in the event of a death.

“It is a source of anxiety that I should have to deliver a judgment that should inevitably cause further stress on those concerned,” Hildyard said.

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