HP’s war of words with Lynch escalates

The war of words between Tipperary-born entrepreneur Mike Lynch and Hewlett Packard over the allegations of accounting irregularities at Mr Lynch’s former company, Autonomy, escalated in advance of the HP annual shareholder meeting yesterday.

In an open letter to HP shareholders, Mr Lynch accused HP of selectively leaking information and smearing him and his former management team without providing any evidence.

Following a massive $11.7bn (€8.65bn) purchase of Mr Lynch’s software firm Autonomy in 2011, HP accused Autonomy of overstating profits at one of its main British units by 81%. A year later HP wrote down the value of Autonomy by more than $8bn due to accounting irregularities.