British tech tycoon Mike Lynch has cleared all fraud charges in the US related to the $11bn (£8.6bn) sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011.
A jury in San Francisco delivered the not-guilty verdict, marking a big victory for Lynch, who had been accused of inflating Autonomy’s value before the sale.
Lynch denied the charges and testified in his defense, emphasizing his focus on technology rather than accounting.
If convicted, he could have faced 20 years in prison.
Lynch said: “I am elated with today’s verdict and grateful to the jury for their attention to the facts over the last 10 weeks.
“I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field.”
Lynch co-founded Autonomy in 1996, growing it into one of the UK’s largest tech companies, often drawing comparisons to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
The company was sold to HP in 2011, the largest-ever takeover of a British tech firm at the time.
Lynch personally earned £500m from the sale.
However, HP wrote down Autonomy’s value by $8.8bn just a year later, sparking extensive legal disputes.
“I am elated with today’s verdict and grateful to the jury for their attention to the facts over the last 10 weeks”
Autonomy’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was convicted of fraud in 2018 and sentenced to five years in prison.
US prosecutors charged Lynch in 2018, accusing him of inflating the firm’s value and concealing its loss-making hardware resale business.
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He was extradited after a UK court ruled in HP’s favor in a civil fraud case in 2022.
During the trial, Lynch’s defense argued HP had failed to vet the deal properly and mismanaged the acquisition.
Judge Charles Breyer dismissed one count of securities fraud due to insufficient evidence.
Another former Autonomy executive, Stephen Chamberlain, was also found not guilty.
Lynch’s lawyers, Christopher Morvillo and Brian Heberlig hailed the verdict as a rejection of the government’s “profound overreach.”
They said: “This verdict closes the book on a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP’s well-documented ineptitude on Dr. Lynch.
“Thankfully, the truth has finally prevailed.”
