Cursed merger knocks £4bn off tech giant

alMoST £4bn was wiped off Britain’s biggest technology company after it warned of a slump in sales and revealed its boss had quit.

Micro Focus said revenues were dropping faster than expected after its controversial £6.6bn takeover of Hewlett Packard enterprise’s (HPe) software arm, which included many of the assets owned by autonomy, the UK tech firm sold to HP in 2011.

Shares fell 46.4pc, or 873.5p, to 1011p resulting in the firm’s market capitalisation dropping from £8.2bn to about £4.4bn sending it to the lower rungs of the FTSe 100.

It said difficulties with merging the businesses were to blame and admitted staff were walking out in droves.

The firm also said Chris Hsu, 47, who joined through the HPe deal, had left his role as chief executive. His departure comes just six months after the takeover completed, with shares in the company plummeting by more than 50pc after markets opened yesterday.

Bosses insisted that the HPe takeover still made sense and that the predicted drop in revenues would be cushioned by better than expected cost savings.

according to the company, Hsu wanted to spend more time with his family and pursue new opportunities.

Micro Focus said problems with the merger would likely mean revenues would drop 4pc. It blamed this on lower than expected income from licensing, saying issues with a new computer system had hampered sales teams and made it more difficult to carry out transactions and collect cash.

Jasper lawler, head of research at london Capital Group, added: ‘The merger deal with HPe has thrown Micro Focus completely off course.’