[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]FLU: Lynch, according to Larry Ellison, tried to sell Autonomy to Oracle, but they sent him packing, claiming that Autonomywas way overvalued.

I don’t remember the number that Lynch floated to Oracle, but I want to say it was $2B and Ellison said that was too high. Lynch is vehemently denying that this ever took place, Ellison has been releasing notes, along with the Autonomy slide deck presented.

All of which begs the obvious questions. First, how in the hell did HP get to an $11B valuation number, and, second, how did that insane number survive due diligence?

Perhaps SK, the resident CPA, can answer that because I have no clue.[/quote]

Beats the f outta me. I don’t know if I ever knew that Apotheker was an SAP guy. If I did, I’d certainly forgot it. It kind of sounds to me like he was envisioning some sort of magical synergy between Autonomy and HP that would help redirect and rebrand HP into a space where they’d never been. And if it worked, the price paid would almost be incidental. That synergy never developed. I have slightly better than a laymans understanding of the space Apotheker and the other HP guy that came from Oracle had their backgrounds in. (I spent some time working in that industry.) But I don’t know enough about Autonomy’s product to know whether that synergy was ever realistic. Acknowledging my lack of qualifications, I have my doubts.

When that wishful thinking synergy never developed, blame the numbers. They didn’t write down the acquisition costs by 10 or 20%. They’re claiming now that its worth only 25% of what they paid, down near the price Ellison was discussing. I think it has nothing to do with bad accounting.

I find it almost bizarre that Ellison is saying anything. The NDA’s on these kinds of negotiations are usually pretty damn tight. If he really is sharing presentations, he’s gonna get his ass sued.