HP and Mike Lynch renew war of words over Autonomy scandal

Mike Lynch has once again hit out at HP over its claims Autonomy's management had doctored its accounts, forcing the tech giant to write down around $9bn of the software maker's value.

HP recently submitted a 10-K filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in which it gave more details of the alleged accounting issues. But Lynch has hit back saying it does not provide enough evidence to back up their claims.

"It is extremely disappointing that HP has again failed to provide a detailed calculation of its $5bn write down of Autonomy, or publish any explanation of the serious allegations it has made against the former management team, in its annual report filing," he said.

"Furthermore, it is now less clear how much of the $5bn write-down is in fact being attributed to the alleged accounting issues, and how much to other changes in business performance and earnings projections."

Lynch also pointed out that HP's upper management and a wealth of advisory firms such as KPMG and Deloitte all reviewed Autonomy's accounts prior to the deal and found no issues. He added that HP is still selling Autonomy software in the same way as Autonomy did.

HP responded by saying the filing was only intended to cover the incident as a basic overview of the incident and it would be using the courts to more fully outline its case against Autonomy's management.

"Our Form 10-K for fiscal 2012 is meant to provide the necessary overview of HP's financial condition, including our audited financial statements, which is what our filing does," it said.

"HP is co-operating with the Department of Justice, the SEC and the UK's Serious Fraud Office in this matter. We continue to believe that the authorities and the courts are the appropriate venues in which to address the wrongdoing discovered at Autonomy."

However Lynch said that as of yet no authority had many any contact on the investigation.

"We remain deeply concerned about how this process has been conducted, and believe it is in everyone's interest for it to be resolved as soon as possible," he added.