By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – HP stock (NYSE:HPQ) traded 1.6% higher Friday after a British judge ruled that it was short-changed when it bought Autonomy in 2011 for $11 billion.
Justice Robert Hildyard held Autonomy-owner Mike Lynch guilty of inflating the company’s books before selling it to HP.
According to Reuters, HP won the majority of its civil case against Lynch though the damages to be announced at a later date will be significantly smaller than the $5 billion demanded.
Giving his verdict on Friday, Judge Hildyard found that Lynch and his finance director Sushovan Hussain had concealed a "fire sale" of hardware and engaged in convoluted reselling schemes to mask a shortfall in sales of their company’s software, the business HP wanted to pivot itself away from hardware.
HP wrote down Autonomy’s value by $8.8 billion in 2012. It sued Lynch in 2015 and sold the remnants of its acquisition along with other assets to British company Micro Focus in 2016.
All eyes are now on U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel who has until the end of the day to decide whether to extradite Lynch to the U.S.