OT -- HP boardroom daggers and intrigue from a few years, playing out in court
'Happy to throw Leo under the bus', Meg Whitman told HP after Autonomy buyout Then-CEO also told Mike Lynch's people to 'grow up'
By Gareth Corfield 5 Jun 2019 at 13:45
full article at theregister.co.uk
excerpt:
Autonomy Trial Meg Whitman told London's High Court today she regretted saying she was "happy to throw Leo [Apotheker] under the bus in a tit-for-tat" during the fallout over HP's purchase of Autonomy.
Robert Miles QC, barrister for ex-Autonomy boss Mike Lynch, showed Whitman - HP's former CEO who replaced Apotheker - a copy of a December 2012 email sent by an HP PR officer Henry Gomez, at the time HP's chief comms officer. That email referred to statements made by Apotheker, who blamed HP's board for letting him go ahead with the US tech titan's buyout of Autonomy.
Apotheker was unhappy that HP was publicly rowing back on its purchase of the British software company because it cast him in a bad light.
"Your comment," said Miles to Whitman, "was 'happy to throw Leo under the bus in a tit-for-tat'."
The black-suited American exec, sitting in the witness box, subtly winced.
"When I felt he was trying to throw the board under the bus, it was in a moment of anger and disappointment here and I shouldn't have said it," she replied. Miles was quick out of the blocks to follow this up, responding: "That's exactly what you did to Dr Lynch at this time."
continues at the link above
[ note: below is a quick refresher for people who don't know what this trial is about:
I just got here - what's it all about?
In 2011, HP bought Autonomy, a maker of software to keep track of unstructured data, founded by Mike Lynch in the UK for $11bn.
After the buyout, the US IT titan wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8bn, claiming the British firm had "misrepresented" its value.
Lynch, Autonomy CEO at the time of the biz gobble, denies this.
HPE is now suing Lynch and Autonomy financial chief Sushovan Hussain at the High Court in London, seeking $5bn in damages.
Click here for more information: theregister.co.uk
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