Dead tycoon Mike Lynch’s estate ordered to pay £700m after court rules in HP’s favour

The estate of British tech mogul Mike Lynch has been ordered to pay over £700 million to Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) after a High Court ruling found he and his business partner misled the company during its multi-billion-pound takeover of Autonomy.

Lynch, who died alongside his teenage daughter Hannah when their luxury yacht Bayesian capsized in a Sicilian storm last August, had long denied wrongdoing. But the court concluded that HPE paid significantly more for Autonomy than it would have had the company’s financial records reflected reality.

HPE acquired Autonomy in 2011 for $11.1 billion (£7.1 billion at the time). But shortly after, the American tech giant wrote down its value by $8.8 billion, alleging serious accounting irregularities. Lynch walked away from the deal £500 million richer.

The court had delayed its ruling following Lynch’s death, a tragedy that claimed seven lives in total when the vessel sank during what should have been a celebratory holiday following his acquittal in a US criminal trial.

In his posthumous statement, prepared before the ruling, Lynch slammed the case as fundamentally flawed. He called HPE’s original demand of $5 billion “a wild overstatement” and criticised the UK’s judicial system for allowing evidence that was not subject to cross-examination—unlike in his US trial, where he was cleared of fraud in 2024.

Despite the judgment against him, the presiding judge noted Lynch’s death with sombre words, offering his “sympathy and deepest condolences” to the family and adding that he had “admired” the late entrepreneur.

HPE, meanwhile, welcomed the outcome. “This decision brings us a step closer to resolving this dispute,” a spokesperson said. “We look forward to the further hearing at which the final amount of HPE’s damages will be determined.”

The court also found Lynch’s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, jointly liable. Hussain, already serving a five-year sentence in the United States following his 2018 fraud conviction, had previously settled with HPE, though the terms of that agreement remain undisclosed.

A 2022 UK ruling had already found that HPE “substantially succeeded” in its civil fraud claim, although damages were expected to be far less than the original $5 billion sought.

HPE maintained throughout that Lynch and Hussain had artificially inflated Autonomy’s value to secure the massive sale. Lynch, however, had consistently argued that the American firm had “botched the purchase of Autonomy and destroyed the company.”

Lynch’s estate may yet have another shot at defending his legacy. A further hearing, scheduled for November, will determine whether it can appeal the High Court ruling. It will also address how the damages should be split between the estate and Hussain.

The extraordinary case has dragged on for over a decade, encompassing high-stakes acquisitions, transatlantic trials, and a tragic ending that reads like a corporate thriller. Yet, with hundreds of millions now at stake and questions over liability still unresolved, the final chapter remains unwritten.