The inside story of a rotten Hewlett Packard deal to be told in trial of fallen British tech star
An $11 billion acquisition that backfired on Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett Packard more than a decade ago is being resurrected at a trial that exploring whether the deal was an illegal rip-off or a case of botched management
SAN FRANCISCO — An $11 billion acquisition that backfired on Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett Packard more than a decade ago will be resurrected Monday during a trial that will explore whether the deal was an illegal rip-off or a case of botched management.
The criminal trial in San Francisco federal court revolves around HP's acquisition of British software maker Autonomy, a deal that was celebrated as coup when it was announced in 2011, only to blow up into a costly debacle.
Before HP wrapped up the deal, Meg Whitman was hired to be CEO of the company started 85 years ago by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in a Palo Alto, California, garage that has become a Silicon Valley shrine.
Whitman, who rose to fame and fortune while running online commerce site eBay in its formative years, had hoped the Autonomy deal would bolster her efforts to lift HP out of the doldrums, but instead it became an albatross that dragged the company down.
As HP's fortunes continued to sag, Whitman laid off thousands of workers and eventually engineered a breakup that split the storied company into two entities in 2015. She stepped down as CEO of the spun-off company, Hewlett Packard Enterprises in 2018.
The alleged villains in the trial are former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch, who once was lionized as shining example of British ingenuity, and Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy's former vice president of finance. They are both defending themselves against 16 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy in a trial expected to run until late
Read more on abcnews.go.com
