The former chief executive of autonomy, the british software maker at the center of hewlettpackards latest scandal denied that his former company committed any accounting chicanery or misled anyone about its financial information the executive, mike lynch, insisted that the first he had heard of the allegations when h. Hp had three lines of software prior to the merger with autonomy. The cfo was one of only a few board members who spoke out against hps proposed acquisition of autonomy, a british software company. Us files criminal charges against autonomys mike lynch. Us, uk investigating firm bought by hp the boston globe. Former hp ceo leo apotheker tells court he didnt read. The uk accountancy watchdog has launched disciplinary action against deloitte over its auditing of autonomy, the british software company accused. Autonomy was the linchpin of former hewlettpackard chief executive leo apothekers strategy to integrate his company s computer and printer businesses with highermargin software. Federal investigators are looking into allegations of accounting fraud at autonomy, a british software company with offices in the boston area that hewlettpackard co.
Lynchs lawyers called the indictment a travesty, saying it shouldnt have been brought in the u. Autonomy, the british business software company now owned by hewlettpackard co. A former executive at british software company autonomy has agreed to become a cooperating witness to resolve u. Hp autonomy, previously autonomy corporation plc, is a multinational enterprise software company founded in cambridge, united kingdom in 1996. Originally, autonomy specialised in analysis of large scale unstructured big data, becoming the uks largest and most successful software business by 2010. Uk watchdog acts against deloitte over autonomy accounts.
Hp says feds investigating troubled autonomy unit long. Autonomy trial a former hp senior director told londons high court yesterday that the it giants postbuyout integration of british software firm autonomy was. The battle over hewlettpackards claim that it was bamboozled when it bought autonomy, a british software company, has been long on angry rhetoric and short on details about the accounting that. Autonomy, an hp company, is a marketleading software company that helps organizations all over the world understand the meaning in information. Following through on threats it has made in the past, hewlettpackard today said it has sued mike lynch and sushovan hussain, the former ceo and cfo of the british. Hps acquisition of autonomy was supposed to form the central part of the us group s move into software, but the plan fell apart after the disastrous deal cost hp shareholders billions of dollars in destroyed value. It used a combination of technologies born out of research at the university of cambridge and developed a variety of enterprise search and knowledge management applications using adaptive pattern rec. Autonomy legal case and revenue recognition there is an interesting report in todays financial times on the legal case against the former cfo of autonomy. Autonomy buy could make hp an oracle takeover target. Apotheker was replaced as ceo in september 2011 by board member meg whitman, who had been ceo of the online auction company ebay. Exautonomy cfo gets 5 years for fraud in sale to hp law360. Autonomy finance chief sushovan hussain handed fiveyear.
Exautonomy cfo convicted of fraud in illfated hp deal. Autonomy legal case and revenue recognition roger w. The insane life of autonomy billionaire mike lynch. Autonomys excfo convicted of fraud linked to hp deal. Hewlettpackards inevitable impairment the motley fool. Hewlettpackards inevitable impairment i told you so. A pioneer in its industry, autonomys unique meaningbased technology is able to make sense of and process unstructured, human information, and draw real business value from that meaning. Shushovan hussain has filed a motion to challenge hps settlement with its shareholders regarding its botched acquisition of the british. Former autonomy cfo asks court to reject hp settlement zdnet. Hewlettpackard sues mike lynch over autonomy sale in uks.
Hewlettpackard has disclosed to the authorities that it found what it said were serious accounting errors at autonomy, the british software maker it acquired in 2011, leading to a number of major revisions in the acquired companys financial report for 2010 among the changes in the restatements were an 81 percent cut in the operating profit of a major autonomy subsidiary, to 19. Autonomy was a british company with software providing pattern recognition capabilities. Dr lynch sold his software company autonomy to hewlettpackard hp in. Exautonomy cfo jailed for five years over hewlettpackard. Leo apotheker would have advised hp to abandon autonomy. British entrepreneur lynch cofounded autonomy in 1996 and served as its ceo. Autonomy trial former hp ceo leo apotheker has claimed that if controversial british software company autonomys accounts were accurate, i doubt that hp would have pursued an acquisition of. Hp revises autonomy financial reports, citing accounting. The former chief financial officer of british software company autonomy was sentenced on monday to five years in prison, after a u. A california federal jury on monday found autonomys exchief financial officer guilty of fraud and securities charges for lying about the british software companys financials before hewlett. Autonomy ceo mike lynch, who founded the company in 1996, owns about 8 percent of the stock, bloomberg data shows. Former autonomy cfo asks court to reject hp settlement. Autonomy sale the focus of the uks biggest fraud trial. British tech entrepreneur dr mike lynch has been freed on bail as he fights extradition to the us on fraud charges.
Exhausted by abundant infighting, as one hp director put it, the board took the unusual action of unanimously picking apotheker in september 2010 even. Feds charge autonomy founder with fraud in botched deal. Among the issues that they plan to raise on appeal is whether the wire fraud violated u. The uks biggest fraud trial gets under way on monday with us technology giant hewlettpackard suing the former head of software firm autonomy. British firm micro focus will take on remaining software assets from hps illfated 2011 acquisition angela monaghan thu 8 sep 2016 12.