Mike Lynch: Autonomy was "one of the most successful companies England has ever produced"

Autonomy founder rejects allegations that he inflated his firm's value before it was sold to HPE

In his first statements to the London High Court on Wednesday, Mike Lynch, the founder of Autonomy, denied that he had misled auditors, investors and the market.

Lynch rejected the claims made by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) that he had inflated his firm's value before HPE bought it for $11 billion in 2011. He also denied that he had ordered Autonomy executives to commit fraud.

Less than a year after its acquisition of Autonomy, HPE wrote down almost the entire value of the British firm, and accused Lynch and firm ' s finance head Shushovan Hussain of inflating the company ' s value.

HPE also filed a $5 billion civil suit in London High Court, alleging that Lynch and Hussain had committed fraud by manipulating Autonomy ' s accounts.

Lynch denies those all those allegations, stressing that HPE had tried to "shift the blame" for mismanagement of Autonomy.

On Wednesday Laurence Rabinowitz QC, acting for HPE, said that Lynch was determined to stop Autonomy from appearing to have "fallen by the wayside" and so misled investors, auditors and the market about its actual performance.

Lynch rejected the argument, and said that those statements were incorrect.

He stressed that Autonomy was "one of the most successful companies England has ever produced" and that Meg Whitman, the ex-CEO of HP, was "out of her depth," and "could not cope with all the fires" at the company.

"It is important to get perspective. No one is disputing the amount of cash Autonomy was taking to the bank each year and that alone would make it one of the most successful companies that England has ever produced," he told the court, according to The Register.

He said that HP tried to make him a "scapegoat" after Whitman failed to integrate Autonomy.

Lynch said that he was not aware of each transaction going on in all of Autonomy ' s subsidiaries around the world, and that most of the disputed transactions HPE picked up on occurred below his level.

The US Department of Justice is closely monitoring Lynch ' s testimony. The British tech entrepreneur currently faces 17 criminal charges of securities and wire fraud in the USA, and may be extradited to California in coming months to stand the trial.

The trial in London court began in March. Lynch, who has attended each hearing since then, is expected to be in the witness box until the end of July.