Tue, 22 Jul 2025

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 Mike Lynch estate and business partner owe HP Enterprise £700m, court rules

Judge rules that the estate of the late tech tycoon, who died when his boat sank last year, must pay out.

* The High Court has ruled that Mike Lynch's estate and his business partner owe tech giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) over £700m.
* HPE claims that Lynch and Autonomy's former CFO Sushovan Hussain misrepresented the company's finances during its sale to HPE in 2011.
* The court found that HPE paid more than it would have if Autonomy's true financial position had been correctly presented.
* The ruling is a result of a long-standing dispute between HPE and Lynch, who made £500m from the sale of Autonomy.
* HPE wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8bn in 2012 after finding "serious accounting improprieties".
* Lynch's teenage daughter was among those killed in the yacht sinking last year, leading to a delay in the court ruling.
* A further hearing will take place in November to decide whether Lynch's estate can appeal the ruling and how damages will be divided between the estate and Hussain.
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