back to article 'I AM NOT PUTTING UP WITH THIS SH*T' Mike Lynch raged at salesmen

London's High Court has seen emails from ex-Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch in which he berated company salespeople for "a massive f***-up" after they bungled a major deal. As well as being probed over the raging emails, Lynch continued to be closely questioned about Autonomy's deals with one of its resellers, Filetek, as barrister …

  1. a_yank_lurker

    Accounting Fraud in Public Companies

    Since Autonomy was a public company they had to file various audited financial reports. If there was accounting fraud, where were the bean counters?

    I could see many reasons for not buying Autonomy at the price paid or not buying them at all after reasonable due diligence. But it seems Leo the Galactic Idiot was determined to have his trophy no matter what. So HP overpaid and ignored signs in the press and reports that this might not be a good deal. There is nothing wrong with not proceeding with a buyout (ask Broadcom).

  2. Starace
    Flame

    The rant is fair

    To be honest I think the rant actually making a fair point to the Sales bods? 'Do your jobs, don't blame other people' - the sort of thing that should happen more often.

    1. Joe W Silver badge

      Re: The rant is fair

      My thoughts exactly. Sort of makes me like that guy

      OK, that's a bit of a stretch, but still.

    2. IT's getting kinda boring

      Re: The rant is fair

      I had a boss like that once. Never respected a manager more than I did him. On more than one occasion blame was shifted to me for something entirely not my fault. I went through the facts as I knew them, the reasons I did what I did, and every single time he came down on my side. He was the same with another guy I knew.

      Occasionally had a raised eyebrow (I wasn't perfect)!

    3. tfewster
      Megaphone

      Re: The rant is fair

      Agreed. Sales gets the rewards, and a fair bit of clout in any company. If they're not keeping on top of "delivery" issues (be it a proposal, demo, contract, shipment or anything else that goes to the prospect/client), they're not doing their job. Tech Team managers may also be fair game if there are legitimate complaints.

      But if Dr Lynch had spoken like that to the individual salesmen or tech staff, that would be unreasonable.

    4. macjules

      Re: The rant is fair

      BEING ASLEEP AND THEN AFTER THE FACT THROWING SOMEONE ELSE UNDER BUS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.

      Seems totally acceptable when it is Meg the Maleficient doing it.

  3. JimboSmith Silver badge

    Certainly not allowed to use personal email for business at my current employers and I've had the odd Lynch-esque email.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Which is funny. Because it seems fine for the boss to call me at home about work.

  4. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    Is it just me...

    But after 12 days of cross examination by HPs barrister, and considering that it was HP themselves that bought the case to trial, I would kind of expected to have seen more smoking gun evidence of an 8 billion dollar fraud by now?

    Obviously we're only getting the highlights in the most excellent El Reg reporting reel, and I'm no lawyer... but it seems kind of odd.

    1. Stumpy

      Re: Is it just me...

      What, you mean as if there IS no evidence of Lynch & Co's wrongdoing and that HP's lawyers are merely on a very expensive fishing exercise?

      Surely not?

      1. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

        Re: Is it just me...

        Well, no. I don't mean that exactly. None of us know that for sure - but I get the feeling that that is how it's going to turn out - so I do agree with your sentiment.

        What I do mean specifically though is that 8 billion dollars is a lot of money, and similar to episode 5 of the excellent Chernobyl series, I'd have expected HP, considering the global coverage and exposure that this trial is getting to have come out of the gates with a detailed forensic account of how the meltdown occurred, and how the auditors were complicit in it to have allowed it to occur on such a large scale - similar to the Enron debacle.

        All I've seen so far is major fuckwittery caused by HPs botched purchase and integration, and a few accounting irregularities (albeit quite odd ones) that may or may not be down to differences in US vs UK GAAP practices. Nothing that suggests $8bn dollars.

        I'm not sure Lynch and co are as squeaky clean as people think, but he's certainly not from what I've seen so far an Andrew Fastow or Jeff Skilling.

      2. Sooty and Sweep

        Re: Is it just me...

        A fishing exercise will get them nowhere in an English court.

  5. Steve K

    Homework again

    Lynch replied: "Why haven't you shown the email where he forwards the information on [to] Mr Khan to his private email address so that he can continue to correspond there? That's in the corpus. And obviously that would break all of our rules..."

    Mr. Lynch has been doing his homework again and it looks like he checked his work - he is a thorough chap!

  6. The Nazz

    Call that an abusive rant?

    By the standards of the 80's and the Board of Directors of a large and substantial Top 300 Company/PLC ( the UK) that effort of Lynch's is exceptionally mild and timid.*

    "Call that a rant man. THIS is how you do a proper f*cking rant ..............."

    No doubt the likes of Jobs, Ballmer, the Oracle guy (Larry, his name slips my mind for a second) did far worse than this every working day.

    *and IMO, and others above, very valid.

  7. Tim99 Silver badge
    Coat

    "the Oracle guy (Larry, his name slips my mind for a second).

    One Real Arsehole Called Larry Ellison? Allegedly.

  8. Chris Morgan

    Take one of the smartest business men in the country to court and make him take the stand. Rest assured he will have studied hard and he will run rings around your legal team.

    Is it too late to bow out with any dignity HP?

  9. GrapeBunch

    The title is too long.

    I wonder if eventually we'll have an Al Capone moment, where an edifice is brought down not by proof of direct naughtiness, but for something like evading VAT. Just blue-skying.

    The most significant moment in today's article, to me, was the fact that Deloitte required Autonomy to produce a document saying that a particular transaction was arm's-length. So HPE's case is built upon suspicions that the auditors had all along? I haven't been dipping into the supply, but rest assured that popcorn will be deployed again before this trial concludes. Pirate popcorn, with butt-ARR. But rest assured, IANAL.

    1. Sooty and Sweep

      Re: The title is too long.

      Its a civil action, so no. Also the Englush judge will keep the parties to the brief.

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