Britain’s Bill Gates finds ally in court

FORMER Hewlett-Packard boss Leo Apotheker is set to defend his disastrous takeover of Cambridge software firm Autonomy tomorrow as the explosive High Court battle involving ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’ enters its second week.

Mike Lynch, the founder and former head of Autonomy, hit back at HP’s claims last week that he cooked the books before the £8.3billion sale in 2011, accusing the Californian firm of failing at due diligence and botching the takeover.

HP is suing Lynch, who was hailed as Britain’s answer to Microsoft founder Gates, for $5.1billion (£4billion). Lynch has hit back with a $160million claim for reputational damage.

German-born Apotheker, who was fired shortly after the takeover, will appear tomorrow and Tuesday in London’s High Court. Though a witness for HP, he could prove a useful ally for Lynch as he is likely to defend the deal they struck.

Lynch once said if Apotheker had stayed at HP it could have been ‘an industry-changing deal’, but ‘we were left as the unwanted stepchild’. Lynch was soon fired by Apotheker’s successor Meg Whitman.

Whitman, who left HP after splitting the firm in two and selling its business division, will give evidence in the coming months.

On the eve of the trial, which began last week, the US Department of Justice stunned Lynch by adding three counts of conspiracy and securities fraud to its charges against him in a separate case, with potential sentences of up to 25 years in prison.