HP announced on Monday that it has followed through with its intentions to acquire Autonomy and has purchased the enterprise information technology firm for £25.50 per share in cash. HP will allow Autonomy to operate as an entirely separate arm; Autonomy will continue to be led by its founder and CEO Dr. Mike Lynch, who will report to HP’s newly appointed CEO Meg Whitman. “We are committed to helping our customers solve their toughest IT challenges,” HP president and chief executive officer Meg Whitman said. “The exploding growth of unstructured and structured data and unlocking its value is the single largest opportunity for consumers, businesses and governments. Autonomy significantly increases our capabilities to manage and extract meaning from that data to drive insight, foresight and better decision making.” Read on for the full press release.
HP Acquires Control of Autonomy Corporation
Positions HP as a leader in fast-growing enterprise information management and data market
HP today announced that it has acquired control of Autonomy Corporation.
Holders of 213,421,299 Autonomy shares have accepted HP’s previously announced offer to purchase the entire share capital of Autonomy at a price of £25.50 per share in cash, representing approximately 87.34 percent of the current issued share capital of Autonomy. As such, all conditions relating to the offer have now been satisfied, allowing HP to acquire control of Autonomy.
The acquisition positions HP as a leader in the large and growing enterprise information management space. Autonomy’s software offerings power more than 25,000 customer accounts worldwide and, as part of HP, will provide high-value business solutions to help customers manage the explosion of unstructured and structured information. Autonomy offers solutions that are complementary across HP’s enterprise offerings and strengthens the company’s data analytics, cloud, industry and workflow management capabilities.
“We are committed to helping our customers solve their toughest IT challenges. The exploding growth of unstructured and structured data and unlocking its value is the single largest opportunity for consumers, businesses and governments,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “Autonomy significantly increases our capabilities to manage and extract meaning from that data to drive insight, foresight and better decision making.”
As previously announced, Autonomy will operate as a separate business unit. Dr. Mike Lynch, the founder and chief executive officer of Autonomy, will continue to lead the Autonomy business and will report to Whitman.
“This is a historic day for Autonomy, our employees and the customers we serve, as we combine HP’s phenomenal assets and Autonomy’s specialized skills to produce systems that handle all the information in the enterprise, regardless of the format it is in,” said Lynch. “We are at the dawn of a new era when it is the ‘I’ in IT that is changing, not just the ‘T.’”
HP’s offer to purchase the remaining Autonomy shares remains open. Further information is available at http://www.hp.com/investor/offerdocuments.
