Jody Godoy
(Reuters) – Jurors in the trial of British tech pioneer Mike Lynch are due to hear closing arguments in San Francisco on Monday on fraud charges linked to Hewlett-Packard Co’s 2011 acquisition of his software company Autonomy for $11 billion.
The Cambridge-educated entrepreneur took the stand in his own defense, denying any wrongdoing and telling jurors that HP had botched the integration of the two companies.
HP wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8 billion within a year of acquiring it.
Lynch and Autonomy’s former financial executive, Stephen Chamberlain, are charged with fraud and conspiracy for allegedly conspiring to inflate the company’s revenue beginning in 2009 in order to attract a buyer.
Prosecutors said the pair inflated Autonomy’s finances in a variety of ways, including backdated contracts and “round-trip” transactions, in which they advanced cash to clients through sham contracts.
In the trial, which began in mid-March, jurors heard testimony from more than 30 government witnesses, including Leo Apotheker, HP’s former CEO, who was fired just weeks after the Autonomy deal was announced.
Lynch’s lawyers argue that HP was eager to acquire Autonomy before potential competitors and therefore rushed through due diligence before the sale.
Lynch said on the stand that she focused on technology issues and left financial matters and the accounting decisions in question to Autonomy’s then-Chief Financial Officer, Sushoban Hussain.
Hussein was released from a U.S. prison in January after serving a five-year sentence for a separate conviction in the same court in 2018.
Lynch is one of Britain’s leading technology entrepreneurs, and has been compared to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
The Autonomy acquisition was one of the UK’s biggest technology deals at the time and was meant to revitalise HP’s software business, but it sparked a series of bitter and costly legal battles.
HP largely won its civil lawsuit against Lynch and Hussain in London in 2022, but damages have yet to be determined: the company is seeking $4 billion.
(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel)
