In Just about every field, stars appear and disappear, some in criminal circumstances and some not quite so. Mike Lynch falls into the first category. Right now, it is a battle to not end up in the slammer for Mike Lynch, who is currently standing trial for fraud.
Years ago, who would have imagined that the once prominent tech figure would slump in disgrace and have his images splashed across headlines around the world over his fraud trial?
Well, this is the reality he contends with right now – and he has the whole world as an audience or rather spectators.
Lynch is at the centre of an $11 billion acquisition that backfired back in 2011 when he was CEO of Autonomy, a software maker that Hewlett Packard tried to acquire back then.
The deal was considered a business coup of sorts, with Lynch as then-CEO praised for his “ingenuity.”
The deal backfired spectacularly, leaving several questions unanswered. Now the authorities are out to find out whether what went down was a case of a botched merger or a rip-off.
Lynch is standing trial alongside Stephen Chamberlain, former vice president of finance at Autonomy. If convicted, they both face prospects of two decades in jail.
