Serious Fraud Office investigates HP's Autonomy acquisition

HP has confirmed that its purchase of Autonomy is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), despite Autonomy's former CEO Mike Lynch (pictured) claiming that he had heard "absolutely nothing" from the investigative body.

HP bought Autonomy in October 2011 for $11.1bn (£7bn), but soon after, Meg Whitman, HP's CEO, alleged that an internal "whistle blower" had come forward claiming that Autonomy had engaged in dubious accounting practices that had artificially inflated the firm's software sales.

About £5bn was then written down from Autonomy's value by HP, and Whitman vowed to pursue compensation for HP through the civil courts, as well as involving both the SFO in the UK and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement division in the US.

Meanwhile, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) launched an investigation into Autonomy's published financial results for the 18-month period before HP bought out the data governance firm.

In December, HP said that it was informed in November that the US Department of Justice had opened an investigation in relation to Autonomy. But up until now, there has been no further confirmation of other agencies' involvement in the case.

In a regulatory filing on Monday, the firm said: "On February 6, 2013, representatives of the UK Serious Fraud Office advised HP that they had also opened an investigation relating to Autonomy."

Earlier this month, Mike Lynch, Autonomy's former CEO, said he had heard nothing from any of the bodies aside from the FRC.

"I've heard absolutely nothing. We have not heard anything from HP or any of the other bodies; the only thing is the FRC are going to look at it, but otherwise we're just sitting there," he said at the London Web Summit.

"On my website, I've demanded for HP to back this up. It is amazing that someone can arrange a whole series of interviews and say stuff without backing it up. We knew nothing about it ahead of time - I don't know what they thought was going on," he added,

In the filing, HP said that it provided information to the SFO, US Department of Justice and SEC relating to the "accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and misrepresentations at Autonomy that occurred prior to and in connection with HP's acquisition of Autonomy".

It explained that HP was involved in various stockholder litigation due to its £5bn writedown of Autonomy, and listed eight of the matters it was involved in.