The Autonomy saga: Clouds over Britain’s tech stars
November 24, 2012
The scandal over alleged financial irregularities at Autonomy has shaken confidence across the British technology industry. The Cambridge-based company was a rare home-grown tech success, the biggest computing firm on the FTSE 100 until it was bought last year by United States giant Hewlett-Packard for $11.1bn (£8.9bn).
Autonomy was the company that was held up as a shining star by ministers of all political stripes, who hailed founder Mike Lynch as a leader and inspiration for other tech entrepreneurs. No wonder, when Britain is sorely lacking in tech success stories that can compare even remotely with the likes of Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM…
Alas this week’s jaw-dropping allegations of fraud, which are vigorously denied by Autonomy and Dr Lynch, and an $8.8bn writedown by HP have changed everything. In essence, HP is claiming it does not believe the revenues that Autonomy declared in its accounts. The British firm stands accused of selling some computer hardware at a loss and treating part of the cost of those sales as a marketing expense…
Read more from the source @ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/the-autonomy-saga-clouds-over-britains-tech-stars-8347677.html