Top five acquisition U-turns that burned the channel

Doug Woodburn
clock • 7 min read

SonicWall's CEO this week opened up on the issues its brief ownership by Dell caused partners. But it's not the only example of an acquisition volte-face by a large vendor causing pain for the channel

1) HP and Autonomy

HP's $11.7bn acquisition of UK software firm Autonomy in 2012 is generally considered to be one of the worst of all time.

It all started off so well, with Autonomy founder Mike Lynch paraded as the star attraction at HP's 2012 partner conference. Lynch's showcasing of Autonomy's augmented reality technology was hailed as one of the event's highlights, with the then-new HP boss Meg Whitman full of praise for the "British Bill Gates".

But the love-in soon ended.

HP fired Lynch in May of the same year, citing disappointing licence sales.

Then came the bombshell in November 2012 that HP had called in the US SEC and the UK's Serious Fraud Office after taking a $5bn charge relating to alleged "serious accounting improprieties" it claimed it had uncovered in Autonomy's finances. Lynch denied the allegations and a bitter legal and PR battle, which is still being fought today, ensued.

Inevitably, the channel was caught up in the furore. Two US resellers were reportedly implicated in the fraud HP alleged took place. And the following year, HP launched an Autonomy channel scheme after admitting it had been 'too hard' for VARs to justify investing in its technology to date.

But with rumours that HP was planning to offload Autonomy to SAP, it was perhaps inevitable that HP would quickly move to end its association with the brand.

Such a move perhaps came later than anticipated, with HPE reaching a deal to sell its non-core software assets - including Autonomy - to UK software firm Micro Focus in September 2016 for a relatively paltry $8.8bn.

You may also like

Vendor

Michael Tso opens up to CRN on how the financial crisis led him to his current role and the hard lessons he's learned

clock 12 July 2019 • 7 min read

Research

Growth in infrastructure sales dwindled in Q1, according to Canalys

clock 27 June 2019 • 2 min read

Vendor

Charles Giancarlo talks CRN through his winding career from founding companies, moving into private equity and joining Pure

clock 17 May 2019 • 7 min read

Sign up to our newsletter

The best news, stories, features and photos from the day in one perfectly formed email.

More on Vendor

Dell has laid off 13,000 employees in one year amid slump

Dell has laid off 13,000 employees in one year amid slump

Dell Technologies’ total employee count shrank from 133,000 a year ago to 120,000 as of this month, down 9.7 percent. The tech giant is awaiting a turnaround in PC and infrastructure sales that has yet to materialise, according to its most recent earnings.

clock 27 March 2024 • 3 min read
10 big Nvidia announcements at GTC 2024: Blackwell GPUs, AI microservices and more

10 big Nvidia announcements at GTC 2024: Blackwell GPUs, AI microservices and more

CRN rounds up ten big announcements Nvidia made at its first in-person GTC in nearly five years

Dylan Martin
clock 25 March 2024 • 12 min read
Christanto Suryadarma, Zebra Technologies

Christanto Suryadarma, Zebra Technologies

CRN
clock 22 March 2024 • 4 min read

Highlights

Staff & Salaries 2022

Staff & Salaries 2022

A snapshot of pay and headcount trends in the UK channel

Doug Woodburn
clock 09 March 2022 • 1 min read
Midwich CEO on Nimans acquisition, 2021 results and return to pre-pandemic levels

Midwich CEO on Nimans acquisition, 2021 results and return to pre-pandemic levels

Stephen Fenby talks to CRN after Midwich’s 2021 results in which profitability exceeded pre-pandemic levels

Josh Budd
clock 08 March 2022 • 3 min read
4 more vendors suspend sales in Russia following Ukraine invasion

4 more vendors suspend sales in Russia following Ukraine invasion

IBM and Microsoft are among a number of vendors which have also announced that they will halt sales in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

clock 08 March 2022 • 3 min read