It took Mr Justice Hildyard over two years to come to a ruling on Hewlett Packard’s civil fraud claim against Autonomy’s founder and CEO Mike Lynch, yet when it came last week it could hardly have been more unequivocal. In brutal detail, he spells out how Lynch and his finance director comprehensively misled the stock market, the company’s auditors, and HP itself prior to the bid by the US company.
Observers of the decade-long fight were hardly surprised to learn the next day of Lynch’s intention to appeal, but the detail and the number of instances which were found against him make success in overturning the ruling a very distant prospect. On the same day the Home Secretary ruled that he could be extradited to the US to face criminal charges relating to the takeover in 2011. He is appealing that decision, too.
