Hewlett-Packard (HP) is owed hundreds of millions, rather than billions, of pounds over its acquisition of British software company Autonomy in 2011, a High Court judge has ruled.
The US firm was seeking to recoup up to £4bn of losses from Dr Mike Lynch – the UK tech entrepreneur – in a damages lawsuit that found in HP’s favour in 2022.
Before a ruling on the sums involved on Tuesday, Dr Lynch tragically died along with his daughter Hannah and five others, when his yacht sank in a freak storm off the Italian coast last August.
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They had been on the vessel celebrating his acquittal in a US fraud case related to the sale of the software firm to HP.
HP brought the High Court case after it significantly wrote down Autonomy’s value by £5.5bn soon after it completed the £8.3bn acquisition, claiming it had been deliberately overstated.
Mr Lynch had intended to appeal the judgment before his tragic death.
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Mr Justice Hildyard ruled that HP suffered losses amounting to £697,876,753, some of which is set to be paid by Dr Lynch’s estate.
He also ruled that Dr Lynch’s estate was liable to pay part of around £35m in damages – with some of that sum due to be paid by Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, who was also sued by HP.
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Mr Hussain has previously settled HP’s claim but could still be required to pay damages.
A further hearing to deal with matters including interest, currency conversion and whether Mr Lynch’s estate can appeal against the decision is set to be held in November.
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Handing down his ruling, Mr Justice Hildyard expressed his “great sympathy” for Dr Lynch’s family, calling his death a “tragedy”.
He said: “It is a source of anxiety to me that I have to deliver a judgment that will inevitably cause further stress on those involved.”
In the 197-page ruling, he said he considered that HP’s claim “was always substantially exaggerated” and that the £4bn figure claimed “was not based on detailed analysis”.
