{"id":103868,"date":"2025-11-18T22:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=103868"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:46:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:46:00","slug":"tech-giant-seeking-1-7bn-from-mike-lynchs-estate-after-yacht-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=103868","title":{"rendered":"Tech giant seeking $1.7bn from Mike Lynch\u2019s estate after yacht death"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hewlett Packard (HP) is seeking $1.7bn (\u00a31.3bn) from the estate of Mike Lynch \u2013 who died last year when his yacht sank \u2013 over HP\u2019s acquisition of his firm Autonomy, the tech giant\u2019s lawyers have told the High Court.<\/p>\n

HP, now known as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), bought Mr Lynch\u2019s tech firm Autonomy in 2011, but it says Mr Lynch and Autonomy\u2019s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, misrepresented the company\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

In a 2019 trial, HPE had accused Mr Lynch of inflating Autonomy\u2019s revenues, which it said forced it to announce an $8.8bn write-down of the company\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n

Mr Justice Hildyard ruled in 2022 that HPE had \u201csubstantially succeeded\u201d in its claim, but that it was likely to receive \u201csubstantially less\u201d than the $5bn it sought in damages.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, he ruled that HPE suffered losses amounting to around \u00a3700m through the purchase of Autonomy.<\/p>\n

Mr Lynch and his teenage daughter Hannah\u00a0were among seven passengers and crew who died\u00a0when the Bayesian went down off the coast of Sicily last August during a storm which caused the vessel to capsize and sink.<\/p>\n

A hearing in London, which began on Tuesday, will now decide whether Mr Lynch\u2019s estate can appeal against the 2022 and 2025 rulings.<\/p>\n

In written submissions, Patrick Goodall, the barrister representing HPE, argued that Mr Lynch\u2019s estate was liable to pay $1.7bn, which includes around $761m in interest.<\/p>\n

He said that Mr Lynch had \u201cnot only perpetrated an enormous fraud, but lied about it at every stage\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the claimants had spent almost \u00a3150m on the legal battle, and were seeking nearly \u00a3113m of their costs from Mr Lynch\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n

Mr Goodall also said that Mr Lynch\u2019s estate should not be allowed to appeal against either the 2022 or 2025 rulings.<\/p>\n

In written submissions, Richard Hill, the lawyer representing Mr Lynch\u2019s estate, said that the $761m in interest sought by the claimants was an \u201cexcessive sum\u2026 based on a flawed analysis\u201d and that the \u201clegally and economically rational approach would provide for a materially lower figure\u201d.<\/p>\n

The claimants\u2019 position that \u201cthey were the victors in this litigation\u201d was \u201coverly simplistic\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Hill also said that Mr Lynch\u2019s estate should be allowed to appeal against the two earlier rulings, claiming that the judge \u201cerred in law\u201d and that there was a \u201ccompelling reason for allowing the appeal to be heard\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Lynch family said: \u201cToday\u2019s hearing addresses technical matters that change nothing about the underlying substance of the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core facts remain that HP\u2019s claim was fundamentally flawed and a wild overstatement.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate case, Mr Lynch was extradited to the US in 2023 to face criminal charges, and he was cleared of fraud charges in 2024.<\/p>\n

He was celebrating being acquitted on his yacht when it sank.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TechHewlett Packard (HP) is seeking $1.7bn (\u00a31.3bn) from the estate of Mike Lynch – who died last year when his yacht sank – over HP’s acquisition of his firm Autonomy, the tech giant’s lawyers have told the High Court.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4303,10,9,2139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mike-lynch","category-politics","category-popular","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}