Mr Justice Hildyard has released a summary of his conclusions in the proceedings brought by Hewlett-Packard against Dr Lynch and Mr Hussain arising out of Hewlett-Packard’s acquisition of Autonomy (a FTSE 100 software company) in 2011. Hewlett-Packard claimed that it was induced into acquiring Autonomy by dishonest statements and omissions in Autonomy’s published information, and other fraudulent misrepresentations made personally by Dr Lynch (the former CEO of Autonomy) and Mr Hussain (the former CFO of Autonomy). The ten-month trial of the claims concluded in January 2020.
Mr Justice Hildyard found that the Hewlett-Packard claimants had "substantially succeeded", and reached clear conclusions on the civil liability of Dr Lynch and Mr Hussain for fraud under section 90A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, common law and the Misrepresentation Act 1967.
The detailed judgment will be handed down in due course. Quantum will be determined in a later judgment.
Laurence Rabinowitz QC, Conall Patton QC, Emma Jones, Ben Zelenka Martin and James Fox appeared for Hewlett-Packard at the trial (together with Patrick Goodall QC and Max Schaefer), instructed by Toby Robinson and Andrew King of Travers Smith LLP.
You can view the summary here.