LONDON — A two-year battle between the managers of Hewlett-Packard and Autonomy over the $10 billion takeover of the software company has come to an end in Britain after the Serious Fraud Office closed its investigation Monday.
The SFO dropped its probe after finding “insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction,” the agency said Monday. The Department of Justice is still investigating, and the SFO said it gave its files to the U.S. authorities.
H-P has alleged that before it agreed to buy Autonomy in 2011, the Cambridge, England-based software company gave an overly rosy representation of its financial health. The next year, H-P wrote down $8.8 billion connected to the acquisition and said more than $5 billion was the result of accounting improprieties by Autonomy.
The “allegations are false, and we are pleased that after a two-year review of the material presented by H-P, the SFO has concluded that,” former Autonomy chief executive officer Mike Lynch said in an e-mailed statement.
Hewlett-Packard “remains committed to holding the architects of the Autonomy fraud accountable,” H-P said in a statement. “As the SFO made clear, the U.S. authorities are continuing their investigation, and we continue to cooperate with that investigation.”
The fight has played out prominently on both sides of the Atlantic, with Lynch posting comments and documents on his blog and Hew lett-Packard allying with shareholders to pursue Lynch and Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain.
