Mike Lynch, founder of software company Autonomy, is headed to court today in what US prosecutors have called the “largest fraud in the history” of Silicon Valley.
In 2011, Hewlett-Packard—seeking to expand its profile in software—purchased UK-based Autonomy, which provides data insights to companies, for $11B. Less than a year later, HP reduced its value by $8.8B, accusing Autonomy of falsifying revenue and accounting figures for the two years before the deal. Lynch accused HP of mismanaging the company post-sale, including by firing half its staff. In 2019, a US judge sentenced Autonomy’s former CFO to five years in prison on charges of wire and securities fraud. Today, Lynch faces 16 similar counts.
Lynch was known as Britain’s Bill Gates at the time of the sale, later advising the British prime minister and serving on the board of the BBC (see his TEDx Talk). He currently runs an investment firm, London-based Invoke Capital.
Comentarios