Hewlett-Packard (HP) is set to recoup more than £700m ($944m) from the estate of the late Mike Lynch and his former business partner, Sushovan Hussain, a London High Court judge ruled on Tuesday.
The sum relates to HP’s ill-fated acquisition of British software firm Autonomy.
The US technology giant had sought to recover losses from Dr Lynch, who died in 2024 when his luxury yacht sank off Sicily, and Mr Hussain.
HP had accused the pair of orchestrating an elaborate fraud to inflate Autonomy’s value before its $11.1bn purchase in 2011, a deal that subsequently unravelled.
Within a year of the acquisition, HP wrote down Autonomy’s value by $8.8bn and launched a $5bn lawsuit against Dr Lynch and Mr Hussain in London.
A judge ruled in HP’s favour in 2022.
Dr Lynch, once lauded as Britain’s answer to Bill Gates, consistently maintained his innocence, instead blaming HP for its failure to integrate Autonomy into its operations.
He was acquitted of criminal charges related to the deal in the US and had intended to appeal the High Court’s 2022 ruling, a process that was on hold pending this week’s decision on damages.
According to The Guardian, Dr Lynch’s estate has been estimated to be worth about £500m, and it could be bankrupted by the court ruling.
Judge Robert Hildyard ruled HP sustained losses of over £646m in relation to the difference between what HP paid for Autonomy and what HP would have paid “had Autonomy’s true financial position been correctly presented”.
Hilyard also said HP was entitled to another £51.7m in relation to “personal claims for deceit and/or misrepresentation against Dr Lynch and Mr Hussain”, plus another $47.5m in relation to losses suffered by group companies.
HP said at a hearing in 2024 that it was seeking up to $4bn. Hussain settled with HP earlier this year.
