(Bloomberg) — 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 was ordered to pay Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. part of that after it lost a London fraud case along with ex-Autonomy chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain.
HPE opted to pursue the damages claim saying it had a “fiduciary duty” to shareholders after winning the fraud claim in 2022 against Lynch and his software firm Autonomy Corp. In total, HPE was seeking $4 billion from Lynch and his former finance chief.
On Tuesday, Judge Robert Hildyard issued his long-awaited ruling after finding in 2022 that Lynch had fraudulently boosted the value of the company. Lynch had for years fought legal issues related to the 2011 sale of his software company. This decision was originally slated for publication in the fall of 2024.
“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.
While he was acquitted of US criminal charges, the London judge had declared him responsible for creating the illusion of a company much larger and more successful than it really was.
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.
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