HPE will pursue the widow of Mike Lynch for the $4 billion in damages it sought from him over the Autonomy merger following the Brit tech tycoon's recent death in a sailing tragedy off the coast of Sicily.in June of criminal fraud in the US over the 2011 sale of software company Autonomy to what was then Hewlett Packard . He was celebrating that outcome with family and friends on his yacht, Bayesian, last month when it was caught in a freak storm and sunk.
A spokesperson at HPE told us today:"In 2022, an English High Court judge ruled that HPE had substantially succeeded in its civil fraud claims against Dr Lynch and Mr Hussain. A damages hearing was held in February 2024 and the judge's decision regarding damages due to HPE will arrive in due course. It is HPE's intention to follow the proceedings through to their conclusion.
The lack of comment from HPE only served to fuel speculation in some quarters of the UK media that the company was likely to drop the compensation claim in light of the tragic events that unfolded. Yet it always seemed inevitable - at least to us - that shareholders would still demand financial compensation, and a failure to press for damages could have opened up HPE to a class action from its own stockholders.Brit tech mogul Mike Lynch missing after yacht sinks off Sicily amid storms, the corporate law of that state means HPE would have to make a reasonable business case to take a lesser settlement.
HP spent $11 billion to acquire UK-based Autonomy in 2011, but the wisdom of that purchase was questioned even before the deal closed. A year later, the tech giant announced aninto the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Lynch and six others on the Bayesian. Marine experts are understood to be puzzled by the sinking of the vessel, which was a modern boat that should have withstood the force of the storm.