HP demands damages after tech tycoon found to have inflated company’s value prior to takeover
: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Mike Lynch, the British technology tycoon, has been sued for $4bn (£3.2bn) in damages after he was found to have fraudulently inflated Autonomy’s value before its takeover by Hewlett-Packard (HP).
Lawyers for HP called on the High Court to award billions of dollars in damages after Mr Lynch and Autonomy’s former finance chief Sushovan Hussain were found to have inflated the revenues of his Cambridge business prior to its 2011 takeover for $11bn.
The hearing over damages comes two years after Mr Lynch was found by the High Court to have to have “induced” HP and weeks before he faces a criminal trial over the claims in the US.
HP had argued Autonomy, at the direction of Mr Lynch, had manipulated its revenue figures, including by booking “revenue-pumping” transactions.
Conall Patton KC, HP’s lawyer, told the court that there was an “immediate and dramatic effect” on Autonomy’s valuation after the fake revenues were removed.
The US company claimed it was owed around $4bn in damages by Mr Lynch and Hussain, slightly down on its previous calculations. An expert for the US company argued the “actual value” of Autonomy was around $7bn.
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