Autonomy Corporation

Autonomy Corporation PLC
Company type	Public (until 2012), then Private
Industry	Enterprise software
Founded	January 1, 1996; 30 years ago in Cambridge, United Kingdom
Founder	Michael Lynch, Richard Gaunt
Defunct	2012 (as public company)
Fate	Acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2011; assets later sold to Micro Focus and OpenText
Headquarters	Cambridge, United Kingdom
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Mike Lynch (co-founder, former CEO), Robert Youngjohns (appointed 2012 by HP)
Products	Enterprise search, big data analytics, information governance, data protection, digital marketing software solutions including IDOL platform
Parent	Hewlett-Packard (2011–2017), Micro Focus (2017–2023), OpenText (2023–present)

Autonomy Corporation PLC was an enterprise software firm established in Cambridge, United Kingdom in 1996. The company specialized in developing and marketing enterprise solutions for big data analytics, information governance, data protection, and digital marketing.

In October 2011, Hewlett-Packard (HP) purchased Autonomy for $11.7 billion (£7.4 billion), subsequently rebranding it as HP Autonomy. Within a year of the acquisition, HP recorded an $8.8 billion impairment related to Autonomy, citing "serious accounting improprieties" and "outright misrepresentations" by the previous leadership. Former CEO Mike Lynch disputed these claims, attributing the issues to HP’s management of the business.

Robert Youngjohns, formerly president of Microsoft North America, was appointed by HP in September 2012 to oversee HP Autonomy. Following HP’s 2015 division into HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Autonomy’s assets were split, with HPE retaining the majority. In 2016, HP Inc sold its Autonomy content management division to Canadian software company OpenText. The remaining Autonomy assets held by HPE were sold to British software firm Micro Focus in 2017. In 2023, OpenText acquired Micro Focus, thereby consolidating the former Autonomy assets under a single organization.

Foundation and Growth

Established in 1996 in Cambridge, England by Michael Lynch and Richard Gaunt as a spin-off from Cambridge Neurodynamics, Autonomy initially focused on computer-based fingerprint recognition technology. The company developed enterprise search and knowledge management products utilizing adaptive pattern recognition methods that combined Bayesian inference with conventional techniques. Its sales approach was notably aggressive, reportedly dismissing the lowest-performing 5% of its sales team quarterly while incentivizing top achievers.

Autonomy went public in 1998 on the EASDAQ exchange at roughly £0.30 per share, eventually reaching a high of £30 during the dot-com boom.

In December 2005, Autonomy acquired competitor Verity, Inc. for around US$500 million and also integrated Neurodynamics into its operations.

By May 2007, after investing in startup Blinkx Inc and merging it with its consumer division, Autonomy took Blinkx public with a valuation of $250 million.

July 2007 marked the purchase of Zantaz, a company specializing in email archiving and litigation support, for $375 million.

In October 2007, Autonomy expanded further by acquiring Meridio Holdings Ltd, a UK-based records management software provider, for £20 million.

On 28 May 2008, Kainos extended its collaboration with Autonomy to deliver advanced information governance solutions focusing on high-end information processing and Information Risk Management (IRM).

In January 2009, Autonomy acquired Interwoven, a specialized enterprise content management software vendor, for $775 million; this acquisition led to the integration of Interwoven as Autonomy Interwoven and Autonomy iManage.

Skepticism regarding Autonomy's performance assertions emerged in 2009 from analyst Paul Morland.

In June 2010, Autonomy announced intentions to purchase the Information Governance division of CA Technologies, though financial terms were not disclosed.

On 5 May 2011, the Mercedes Formula One team revealed an $8 million sponsorship agreement with Autonomy. Earlier, in July 2010, Tottenham Hotspur FC secured a two-year Premier League kit sponsorship deal with Autonomy featuring its augmented reality platform Aurasma for the 2011–12 season.

On 16 May 2011, Autonomy acquired Iron Mountain Digital, a leader in electronic discovery (E-discovery) and online backup services, for $380 million from Iron Mountain Incorporated.

Hewlett-Packard

On 18 August 2011, Hewlett-Packard (HP) declared its intention to purchase Autonomy at a price of US$42.11 per share, representing an approximate 79% premium over the prevailing market value. This acquisition was met with widespread criticism, described as an "excessively high" valuation and a "disorganized" effort by HP to swiftly shift its focus toward expanding its lucrative software services division. Both companies’ boards unanimously consented to the transaction, with Autonomy’s board recommending shareholders approve the offer. The agreement was finalized on 3 October 2011, with HP acquiring around 87.3% of Autonomy’s shares for roughly $10.2 billion, placing the company’s total worth near $11.7 billion.

On 10 January 2012, Autonomy Corporation PLC transitioned into a privately held entity named Autonomy Corporation Limited. By May 2012, co-founder Mike Lynch resigned from his CEO role amid a notable decline in revenue. Later that year, in September, Robert Youngjohns took on the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Autonomy/Information Management Business Unit.

In November 2012, HP disclosed an $8.8 billion accounting impairment charge, attributing it to "significant accounting irregularities" and "deliberate misrepresentations" within Autonomy; this announcement caused a sharp drop in HP’s stock price. Former executives of Autonomy accused HP of poor management and alleged that it had concealed prior awareness of financial discrepancies, pointing out that such issues had been publicly noted since 2009 and that even HP’s CFO had opposed the acquisition price. Industry analysts indicated that only a portion of the write-down was due to accounting mistakes and suggested HP had overpaid for Autonomy. Lynch attributed these difficulties to internal disputes inside Autonomy. Reports also highlighted considerable cultural conflicts between the companies.

Subsequently, investigations were launched by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the FBI; however, the SFO terminated its inquiry in January 2015 citing limited chances of prosecution.

Shareholders initiated three separate lawsuits against HP concerning the decline in share value. In August 2014, a U.S. federal judge dismissed a proposed $48 million settlement after former Autonomy executives argued it was collusive and intended to protect HP’s leadership.

In November 2013, HP merged its Exstream customer communication management (CCM) division into the HP Autonomy group.

On 30 January 2014, partner Kainos incorporated HP IDOL 10.5—Autonomy’s analytics platform—into its electronic medical record system called Evolve.

Following Hewlett-Packard Company's division on 31 October 2015, Autonomy’s software portfolio was split between HP Inc (HPQ) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Content management products such as TeamSite, Qfiniti, MediaBin, Optimost, and Explore were assigned to HP Inc; meanwhile, HPE retained the remaining software assets along with the legal entity Autonomy Corporation Limited.

Acquisition by Micro Focus and OpenText

On 2 May 2016, OpenText purchased several products from HP Inc including HP TeamSite, HP MediaBin, HP Qfiniti, HP Explore, HP Aurasma, and HP Optimost for $170 million.

In 2017, Hewlett Packard Enterprise divested its Autonomy-related holdings in an $8.8 billion transaction with British software firm Micro Focus. Micro Focus acquired the operating subsidiary Autonomy Systems Limited along with associated international subsidiaries on 1 September 2017. The original parent company, Autonomy Corporation Limited, was subsequently merged into HPE’s subsidiary ACL Netherlands B.V., ceasing to exist as an independent entity.

In April 2018, former Autonomy CFO Sushovan Hussain faced charges and was convicted of accounting fraud in the United States; he was later released on bail pending appeal, which was ultimately denied in August 2020.

Following Hussain’s testimony, founder Mike Lynch was charged with fraud in November 2018; Lynch has denied all accusations and is contesting extradition proceedings.

In March 2019, Hewlett-Packard commenced a civil trial lasting 93 days in UK courts against Lynch and Hussain that involved extensive cross-examination. In January 2022, the High Court ruled largely in favor of HP, determining that Lynch and Hussain had artificially inflated Autonomy’s financial statements.

In September 2020, Deloitte—the auditor for Autonomy from 2009 through 2011—was penalized £15 million for significant audit deficiencies.

In August 2022, OpenText revealed plans to acquire Micro Focus in a transaction valued at $6 billion. This acquisition received court approval on 27 January 2023 and was finalized on 31 January 2023.

Products and services

The flagship offering from HP Autonomy, the Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), facilitates the search and analysis of both structured and unstructured information—including emails, mobile content, audio, video, and textual data—sourced from a wide array of origins. This platform forms the foundation of Autonomy's Meaning-Based Computing methodology.

The range of HP Autonomy's solutions encompasses:

Marketing Optimization: Includes Web Experience Management, Web Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Marketing Analytics, Contact Center Management, and Rich Media Management
Information Analytics: Features Voice of the Customer insights, Media Intelligence, Video Surveillance, Big Data Analytics, and Sales Force Automation Intelligence
Unified Information Access: Comprises Enterprise Search, Knowledge Management, and Content Access & Extraction
Information Archiving: Offers Compliance Archiving, Litigation Readiness Archiving, Storage Optimization Archiving, Database & Application Archiving, along with Supervision & Policy Management
eDiscovery: Provides Legal Hold capabilities, Early Case Assessment, Review & Analytics, Investigations support, and Post-Review functionalities
Enterprise Content Management: Delivers Policy-driven Information Management, Records Management, Legal Content Management, Business Process Management, as well as Document and Email Management
Data Protection: Encompasses Server Data Protection, Virtual Server Data Protection, Remote & Branch Office Data Protection, and Endpoint Device Data Protection
Customer Communications Management: Caters to Healthcare Communications, Transactional Communications, State and Federal Communications, Utility and Smart Meter Communications, plus High Volume Communications
Automated Information Capture: Supports multichannel automated capture including intelligent document recognition and classification, remote capture solutions, and validation processes
Haven OnDemand: An API platform designed for creating data-intensive applications with robust indexing and analytical capabilities across text documents, audio files, and video content
Haven Search OnDemand: A rapidly deployable Enterprise Search solution developed on the Haven OnDemand API framework

Offices

Autonomy operated principal offices located in Cambridge (England) and Sunnyvale (California), alongside significant sites throughout the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Germany. Additional smaller offices were established in India, various European countries, and Latin America.

External links