You didn’t really think Mike Lynch would stay away from Hewlett-Packard, did you
The former chief executive of Autonomy has posted an open letter to shareholders with some questions he’d like raised at Wednesday’s shareholders’ meeting in Mountain View, Calif.
To recap the grudge: In August 2011, the company announced it would buy Autonomy, a data analytics company in Britain founded by Mr. Lynch. Hewlett paid about $11.1 billion for Autonomy, which it said would be at the center of its strategy to have more value-added software in its products.
Last November, however, the company announced it would take a $8.8 billion accounting charge, largely over what it said were irregularities with Autonomy. It also said it had notified regulators in the United States and Britain.
Mr. Lynch has repeatedly denied there were problems at his company and says Autonomy ran into trouble owing to mismanagement by Hewlett.
The substance of Wednesday’s letter repeats those charges, with a call for shareholders to raise such issues as how the board came to make its allegations against Autonomy, how Hewlett came to its impairment charge figure and whether Autonomy executives told Hewlett management early on that the merger was having problems.
“As we have said before, we believe the problem with the Autonomy acquisition by H.P. lies in the mismanagement of that business by H.P. under its ownership, making it impossible for Autonomy to deliver on H.P.’s expectations,†Mr. Lynch wrote in the open letter posted Wednesday. “Autonomy’s accounts were fully audited by Deloitte throughout the period in question, and Deloitte has confirmed that it conducted its audit work in full compliance with regulation and professional standards. We refuse to be a scapegoat for H.P.’s own failings.â€
When asked about the letter, Hewlett responded with a brief statement:
“H.P.’s position is the same as it has been from the beginning. We have handed over our information of serious misrepresentations in Autonomy’s accounting to the proper authorities, namely the S.E.C. and the Department of Justice and in the U.K. the S.F.O. We continue to cooperate and provide requested information to the relevant authorities on an ongoing basis,†the letter said, referring to the Serious Fraud Office in Britain.
The company later added, “H.P. cannot disclose any information that would interfere with any of the ongoing investigations into this matter. We are cooperating with the authorities.â€
In other words, this isn’t the end of the matter, and there almost certainly will be no conclusion on Wednesday.
