A London High Court judge has ruled that the estate of the late Mike Lynch and his former business partner, Sushovan Hussain, must pay Hewlett-Packard (HP) more than £700m ($944m) over the disastrous acquisition of British software firm Autonomy in 2011.
Judge Robert Hildyard determined that HP suffered losses of over £646m due to the inflated price paid for Autonomy, based on what the company would have been worth had its true financial position been correctly presented. An additional £51.7m was awarded for personal claims of deceit and misrepresentation against Dr Lynch and Mr Hussain, plus $47.5m for losses suffered by HP group companies.
HP had originally sought up to $4bn in damages, but the judge’s award was significantly lower. Mr Hussain settled with HP earlier this year, leaving Dr Lynch’s estate to bear the bulk of the liability. Dr Lynch, who died in 2024 when his luxury yacht sank off Sicily, had consistently denied the fraud allegations, blaming HP for its failure to integrate Autonomy.
Dr Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges in the US and had planned to appeal the High Court’s 2022 civil ruling, which found him liable for fraud. His estate, estimated at around £500m, may be bankrupted by the judgment.
