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HP has fired Mike Lynch, the British founder of Autonomy, the search firm that HP acquired for $10 billion last year.
According to a number of sources, Lynch was dismissed following disappointing results and there were also reports of difficulty in settling in to the corporate culture of HP.
Lynch is not the first staff member at HP to lose their job as the vendor seeks to reduce operating costs but his is certainly the most senior dismissal. Rumours abound of friction between Lynch and other executives at HP, as well as his famous spat with Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and HP’s CEO Meg Whitman cited the difficulty in moving from a small lean company to much larger corporate entity.
“It is not the product. It’s not the market. It’s not the competition. This is classic entrepreneurial company scaling challenges – it’s a whole different ball game,” Commented Whitman.
Nonetheless, sources inside Autonomy have suggested that although Lynch knew and believed in the product, the sales and management side of the business left a lot to be desired.
