Autonomy founder 'shocked' by HP's fraud allegations
Autonomy聽founder and former CEO Mike Lynch told CNBC Tuesday that he was "shocked" by allegations of accounting fraud and blamed聽Hewlett-Packard, which acquired his company last year, for "mismangement" that led an $8.8 billion charge and sent HP's stock reeling.
"We've been pretty ambushed by this today," Lynch said in an interview from London. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 been significant mismanagement of the company.鈥�
聽Lynch's comments came after HP said earlier Tuesday that it was forced to take an $8.8 billion one-time charge because of "serious accounting improprieties" at Autonomy, which HP acquired for $11.5 billion in 2011.
The news surprised investors and sent HP's stock聽plunging $1.59, or 12 percent, in trading Tuesday.
In a separate interview with CNBC on Tuesday, HP CEO Meg Whitman, who fired Lynch shortly after the Autonomy acquisition, said the company engaged in a "willful effort to mislead" HP shareholders and management.
For his part, Lynch said the mismanagement came after HP took over the company.
The due diligence鈥攐r checking the books鈥攐n Autonomy "was what Hewlett-Packard described as meticulous," said Lynch. 鈥� And then they actually ran the company, including doing all of the books, for the last four quarters.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檇 be talking about a massive elephant in the room that wasn鈥檛 spotted," he added. "And the reason it wasn鈥檛 spotted is very simple 鈥� it wasn鈥檛 there."
