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Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri has defended the “difficult” decision to pursue the tech company’s $4 billion civil suit against the estate of Mike Lynch, saying the move was “in the best interests of the shareholders”.
Lynch and his daughter were among seven people killed last month when his family’s yacht sank off the coast of Sicily. They celebrated his acquittal on US fraud charges related to Hewlett-Packard’s $11.7 billion purchase of Autonomy, the British software group founded by the British entrepreneur.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Neri said Lynch’s acquittal and death did not change efforts to pursue a separate civil claim over the takeover.
“It is clearly my job as a shareholder representative to make the tough decisions,” Neri said, confirming he was not asking for their input. “These are difficult decisions. But ultimately we make decisions in the best interests of shareholders.”
He added that “what we saw three weeks ago is clearly a sad story. The loss of so many lives, including Dr. Lynch. And of course our thoughts are with them.
“But the reality of what happened does not change what has happened over the last decade, during which we believe there has been misconduct, and that is why we must see through the process by which the British judge concludes his proceedings,” Neri said.
A spokesperson for the Lynch family declined to comment.
HPE was formed from the 2015 split of Hewlett-Packard. The company sued Lynch after taking an $8.8 billion writedown on its 2011 acquisition of Autonomy, accusing it of falsely inflating its revenues of the company.
In 2022, a British High Court judge found Lynch liable for fraud after a lengthy trial. The following year, Lynch was extradited to the US to face criminal charges.
HPE has been waiting for the same judge to award damages to Sushovan Hussain, the former chief financial officer of Lynch and Autonomy, who was convicted of fraud in the US and sentenced to five years in prison in 2019.
Lynch is survived by his wife Angela Bacares and another daughter. Lynch’s estate will likely be asked to cover HP’s millions of dollars in legal fees, and the company may also seek to pursue his assets, including those passed down to his heirs.
“Remember that [the judge] has already ruled that there has been misconduct and the issue now is what damages he will award after completing his proceedings,” said Neri, who has led HPE since 2018. “So it is very normal for us to get through that.”
Once the judge rules on damages, “we will gather and understand what comes next,” he added.
Neri said the fact that Lynch and his co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain – who died as a result of a road accident in Britain days before Lynch’s yacht sank – had been acquitted in the US did not call into question the British civil case.
“They are two different cases, independent cases,” Neri said. “A person [Hussain] had already been convicted. . . and that basically confirms that something was done wrong.”