Autonomy founder Lynch plans to bring Hewlett-Packard to court in the amount of $ 5 billion

Mike Lynch, once hailed as the British answer to Bill Gates, will face Hewlett-Packard (HP) on Monday in the London High Court in a multi-billion dollar confrontation over the purchase in 2011 of the Autonomy software he founded.

The case is part of a dispute between HP and Lynch that has lasted for more than six years over the person responsible for the disastrous deal, which ultimately cost the Silicon Valley pillar shareholders billions of dollars.

HP claims approximately $ 5 billion in damages to Lynch and his former colleague, Sushovan Hussain, alleging that they had inflated the value of Autonomy before selling the Big Data company, whose software researches and organizes information unstructured, such as telephone conversations.

Lynch denied the allegations and said that the failure of the $ 11 billion acquisition was attributable to HP's mismanagement.

Aged 53, whose doctoral dissertation is one of the most consulted at the University of Cambridge, he claims more than $ 160 million in damages for loss and damage caused by HP's stock.

The autonomy was supposed to be the centerpiece of a plan to turn HP's PC and printer manufacturer into a software-driven business services company. , an evolution successfully undertaken by IBM over the past two decades.

Lynch is engaged in a war of words with HP since being fired by former HP CEO, Meg Whitman, in 2012, less than a year after finalizing the deal.

The entrepreneur has maintained his position on the British technology scene by investing in a series of new companies and joining organizations such as the Royal Society.

However, the stakes of the conflict intensified in November when Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain, another former leader of Autonomy, were charged with wire fraud in the United States, with a maximum penalty of 20 years. # 39; imprisonment.

An amended indictment filed on Friday added charges against the two men, including a head of securities fraud against Lynch, which could sentence him to 25 years in prison.

Lynch has retired from her advisory role to the government and Royal Society committees. Hussain was found guilty in a related case in April 2018, but has not yet been sentenced.