Lynch: I'll not be made scapegoat for HP's utter disarray

HP conflict escalates as software firm's founder cranks up the invective in Sky interview

Autonomy founder Mike Lynch has ratcheted up the war of words with HP by asserting that "I'm not going to be HP's scapegoat for the fact that the company is in utter disarray".

HP stunned the industry earlier this week by claiming that the UK software firm it bought last summer had inflated its value and been guilty of "serious accounting improprieties". The vendor giant alleges that the search specialist inflated its top line by using client hardware sales to book non-existent software revenue. During Q3 HP reported a goodwill writedown of $8.8bn (£5.5bn) related to the acquisition.

Lynch was quick to speak out to strongly refute the claims of misconduct, and the conflict between the two parties continues to escalate. In an interview with Sky News, the former Autonomy boss chalks up the writedown to HP's mismanagement following the buyout.

"This is a company that is in utter chaos; [this week] it delivered its worst results in probably 70 years," said Lynch. "But I'm not going to be HP's scapegoat for the fact that the company is in utter disarray."

The Autonomy man went on to blame the change in HP's leadership in September 2011, which saw Meg Whitman replace the much-maligned Leo Apotheker, for the deterioration in the software vendor's fortunes.

"Leo... saw the vision of taking Autonomy and doing a big software business in HP," he explained. "The problem was that they were ousted in a coup d'état and suddenly we are a situation where we no longer fitted the flip-flopping strategy."

Lynch also claimed that he has not been contacted by HP regarding the allegations.

"They want to create a lot of PR noise here without having a situation where we can actually answer it," he concluded.