The estate of tech tycoon Mike Lynch – who died last year when his yacht sank – and his business partner owe tech giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) over £700m, the High Court has ruled.
HPE bought Mr Lynch’s tech firm Autonomy in 2011, but it says Mr Lynch and Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, misrepresented the company’s finances.
The court ruled that HPE had paid more than it would have done “had Autonomy’s true financial position been correctly presented” during the sale.
A spokesperson said Mr Lynch had prepared a statement on the ruling last year which called HPE’s initial claim for up to $5bn (£3.7bn) a “wild overstatement”.
Mr Lynch and his teenage daughter Hannah were among seven passengers and crew who died when the Bayesian went down off the coast of Sicily last August during a storm which caused the vessel to capsize and sink.
Tuesday’s ruling was delayed because of the tragedy.
The judge expressed his “sorrow at this devastating turn of events, and my sympathy and deepest condolences”, adding that he “admired” Mr Lynch despite ruling against him.
In response to the ruling, HPE said it was “pleased that this decision brings us a step closer to the resolution of this dispute”.
“We look forward to the further hearing at which the final amount of HPE’s damages will be determined,” it added.
The US technology giant had accused Mr Lynch and Hussain of fraudulently inflating the value of Autonomy, which HPE bought for $11.1bn in 2011 – worth £7.1bn at the time.
Mr Lynch made £500m from the sale.
Just over a year later, HPE wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8bn because it said it had found “serious accounting improprieties”.
Mr Lynch and Hussain denied the claim, with the former saying HPE had “botched the purchase of Autonomy and destroyed the company”.
Hussain was convicted in April 2018 in the US of fraud and other crimes related to Autonomy’s sale and was sentenced to five years in prison.
In a ruling in the UK in 2022, Mr Justice Hildyard said HPE had “substantially succeeded” in its claim, but that it was likely to receive “substantially less” than the $5bn it sought in damages.
Mr Lynch was extradited to the US in 2023 to face criminal charges, and he was cleared of fraud charges in 2024.
He was celebrating being acquitted on his yacht when it sank.
Mr Lynch’s prepared statement said that HPE “acquired Autonomy for $11.6bn and today’s judgment is a view that Autonomy’s actual value was not even 10% below the price [HPE] paid”.
He said that the civil case “included hearsay evidence from the US and we were never able to question or cross-examine those witnesses”.
“When in the US criminal trial we were able to cross-examine the relevant witnesses, a very different story emerged. Why is the English legal system so trusting?” Mr lynch added.
A further hearing will take place in November to decide whether Mr Lynch’s estate can appeal Tuesday’s High Court ruling.
It will also consider how damages to be paid the HPE will be divided between Mr Lynch’s estate and Hussain, with whom HPE settled earlier this year.