American HPE will not drop the civil lawsuit against Mike Lynch in the UK, the company announces. HPE accuses Lynch and his former finance chief Sushovan Hussain of fraud in connection with the takeover of Lynch's software company Autonomy in 2011.
HPE largely won a court ruling in 2022, and a judge is expected to soon decide on the amount of damages. HPE has demanded equivalent to 41 billion kronor in damages, claiming that Autonomy's top executives grossly inflated the value of their company. However, a judge has hinted that the amount will be significantly lower.
Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah were two of the seven who died when his luxury yacht Bayesian sank off Sicily on August 19. His widow Angela Bacares, who was one of the 15 rescued from Bayesian, may therefore become liable for repayment.
Oliver Embley, co-owner of the law firm Wedlake Bell, says that HPE has a responsibility towards its shareholders to pursue the lawsuit, but it's a balancing act.
From a publicity perspective, it can backfire on them. In practice, they would sue his widow, and it doesn't look good, he says to The Guardian.
American IT giant Hewlett Packard (HP) announced in 2011 that it was buying British software company Autonomy in a deal valued at around ten billion dollars.
British Autonomy, founded by, among others, Mike Lynch, developed, among other things, search engines for internal use.
It quickly turned out that the deal was a disaster, where HP wrote off most of the value within a year, which contributed to the stock price taking a hit.
HP accused Lynch and the finance chief of having inflated the value through accounting fraud. Lynch was acquitted in a criminal trial in the US this year, but a British court in a separate civil lawsuit largely sided with the IT giant.
In 2015, Hewlett Packard was split into two parts, HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
