Autonomy Corporation
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| Type | Wholly Owned Subsidiary |
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| Industry | Information technology |
| Founded | 1996 (Cambridge) |
| Founder(s) | Michael Richard Lynch David Tabizel Richard Gaunt |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, United Kingdom San Francisco, United States |
| Area served | Global |
| Key people | Sushovan Hussain (President) |
| Products | Search engine for unstructured information |
| Revenue | US$870.4 million (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | US$316.4 million (2010)[1] |
| Net income | US$217.3 million (2010)[1] |
| Employees | circa 1,900 (2010)[2] |
| Parent | Hewlett-Packard |
| Website | www.autonomy.com |
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| Autonomy Corporation headquarters at Cambridge Business Park. |
Autonomy Corporation is a multinational enterprise software company founded in Cambridge, United Kingdom in 1996. It is a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard. The company has joint headquarters in Cambridge, UK and San Francisco, USA.
The company uses a combination of technologies born out of research at the University of Cambridge. It develops a variety of enterprise search and knowledge management applications using adaptive pattern recognition techniques centered on Bayesian inference in conjunction with traditional methods.
Autonomy was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in October 2011. The following year, HP wrote off $8.8 billion of Autonomy's value, claiming that a serious accounting scandal was found at the company.[3]
Contents |
History [edit]
Inception and expansion : 1996 - 2011 [edit]
Autonomy was founded in Cambridge, England by Dr. Michael Lynch, David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt in 1996 as a spin-off from Cambridge Neurodynamics, a firm specializing in computer-based finger print recognition.[4][5]
Autonomy floated in 1998 on the EASDAQ exchange at a share price of approximately £0.30. At the height of the "dot com bubble", the peak share price was £30.[6]
In December 2005 Autonomy acquired Verity, Inc., one of its main competitors, for approximately US$500m.[7] In 2005 Autonomy also acquired Neurodynamics.[8]
In May 2007, after exercising an option to buy a stake in technology start up Blinkx Inc, and combining it with its consumer division, Autonomy floated Blinkx on a valuation of $250m.[9]
In July 2007 it acquired Zantaz, an email archiving and litigation support company, for $375m.[10]
In October 2007 Autonomy acquired Meridio Holdings Ltd, a UK company based in Northern Ireland that specialised in Records Management software, for £20m.[11]
In January 2009 it acquired Interwoven, a niche provider of enterprise content management software, for $775m.[12] Interwoven became Autonomy Interwoven and Autonomy iManage.
In 2009 Paul Morland, a leading analyst, started raising concerns about Autonomy's exaggerated performance claims.[13][14]
In June 2010 the company announced that it was to acquire the Information Governance business of CA Technologies. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.[15]
On 5 May 2011 the Mercedes GP Formula One team announced an $8 million sponsorship deal with Autonomy, and on 8 July 2010 Tottenham Hotspur FC announced a two year sponsorship deal with Autonomy for their Premier League kit.[16][17] For the 2011-12 season Spurs' Premier League shirt will feature Autonomy's Augmented Reality technology Aurasma.[18]
On 16 May 2011 Autonomy acquired Iron Mountain Digital, a pioneer in E-discovery and online backup solutions provider, for $380m from Iron Mountain Incorporated.[19]
As a Hewlett Packard company: 2011 - Present [edit]
On 18 August 2011 Hewlett Packard announced that it would purchase Autonomy for US$42.11 per share, around $10.2B. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both HP and Autonomy and the Autonomy board recommended that its shareholders accept the offer.[20] On 3 October 2011 HP closed the deal with over 87% of Autonomy shares acquired.[21]
In May 2012 Mike Lynch left his role as Autonomy CEO after a significant drop in revenue in the previous quarter.[22]
In November 2012 Hewlett-Packard announced that it was taking an $8.8 billion accounting charge, after claiming “serious accounting improprieties” and “outright misrepresentations” at Autonomy.[23][24] However, Mike Lynch counter-alleged that the problems were due to HP's running of Autonomy,[25] citing "internecine warfare" within the organization.[26]
Products [edit]
The main technology, 'Intelligent Data Operating Layer' (IDOL), allows search and processing of text taken from database, audio, video or text files or streams. The processing of such information by IDOL is referred to by Autonomy as Meaning-Based Computing.[27]
Autonomy's technology attempts to "understand" any form of unstructured information, including text, voice, and video, and based on that understanding perform automatic operations, for example inferring what the user wants and on that basis finding other information that may be of interest.
On 29 November 2011, HP announced a new big data analytics platform, "HP Next Generation Information Platform", based on a combination of Autonomy’s unstructured data analytics engine, IDOL 10 and Vertica's fast-loading, real-time analytics database.[28][29] This strategic move by HP is part of its refocus on enterprise software, and enterprise integration solutions and services. The platform will combine structured data with unstructured information - which comprises about 80% of the data on the web such as video, pictures, emails etc.; and handle them in a unified manner.
Customers [edit]
Autonomy has over 400 OEM partners, more than 400 vendors and integrators, and over 20,000 customers, including BP, Halliburton, Royal Dutch Shell, BAE Systems, AstraZeneca, United States Department of Defense, United States Department of Homeland Security, Citigroup and Symantec.[30]
Offices [edit]
Autonomy has twin head offices in Cambridge, UK, and San Francisco, USA, major offices in the US, the UK, Canada, France, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Germany, and smaller offices in India and throughout Europe and Latin America.
Senior management [edit]
Many of Autonomy's senior executives left after the acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, "amid accusations that HP is too bureaucratic, and counterclaims that Lynch and his team failed to deliver on revenue targets".[31] The membership of the company's management team at any time is available on the company Web site.[8]
Competitors [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ a b c "Preliminary Results 2010". Autonomy.com. Archived from the original on 11 April 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ Annual Report 2010
- ^ Hewlett-Packard shareholder claims company has lied about Autonomy write-off
- ^ Security Group Seminar University of Cambridge
- ^ The Kindness of Strangers VNU Net
- ^ Loney, Matt (13 November 2008). ""What that £10k is worth now", 31st Dec 2001, zdnet.co.uk". News.zdnet.co.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ ""Autonomy buys Verity", Information World Review". Iwr.co.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ a b "Autonomy's Board of Directors". Autonomy.
- ^ 22 May 2007 by Pete Cashmore View Comments (22 May 2007). "Blinkx IPO goes ahead". Mashable.com. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ "Autonomy buys Zantaz". Law.com. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ Autonomy announces an agreement to acquire Meridio Holdings Limited
- ^ Davey, James (22 January 2009). "Autonomy to buy Interwoven for $775m". Reuters. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ "UBS and Goldman Sachs had access to negative Autonomy research". The Guardian. 22 November 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
- ^ "Analysts warned that UK software giant Autonomy's finances were 'questionable' three years before disastrous Hewlett Packard deal". This is Money. 21 November 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
- ^ Autonomy to Acquire CA's Information Governance Business News article from InfoGrok
- ^ "Mercedes GP Petronas announce Autonomy sponsorship deal". Mercedes Benz.
- ^ "Tottenham reveal new pounds 20m shirt sponsors". The Daily Mail (UK). 8 July 2010. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ "Tottenham Hotspur shirts to feature Autonomy's Aurasma". Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
- ^ Autonomy buys Iron Mountain's digital archiving outfit Guardian, 16 May 2011
- ^ HP to acquire Autonomy HP Newsroom, 18 August 2011
- ^ "Hewlett-Packard completes Autonomy buyout". BBC News. 18 October 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
- ^ HP Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch replaced Slashgear, 23 May 2012
- ^ H.P. Takes Big Hit on ‘Accounting Improprieties’ at Autonomy NY Times, 20 November 2012
- ^ "BBC News - Autonomy misled HP about finances, Hewlett Packard says". BBC Online. 20 November 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012. "Computer maker Hewlett Packard has asked US and UK authorities to investigate alleged misrepresentations of Autonomy's finances before HP took over the UK software group last year."
- ^ Mike Lynch defends Autonomy accounting methods The Telegraph, 21 November 2012
- ^ Autonomy’s Ex-Chief: H.P.’s Claims ‘Completely and Utterly Wrong’ Dealbook, 21 November 2012
- ^ "What is meaning-based computing". Computing.co.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ "HP Unveils Autonomy/Vertica-based Big Data Analytics Platform". servicesangle.com. Retrieved 9 Feb 2012.
- ^ "HP pairs Autonomy and Vertica software". computerworld.com. Retrieved 9 Feb 2012.
- ^ "customer list". Autonomy.com. Archived from the original on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ Guardian newspaper: Autonomy founder Mike Lynch to leave Hewlett-Packard, 24 May 2012
External links [edit]
- Company site
- "The Quest for Meaning" WIRED
- What Is Meaning-Based Computing?
- Michael Lynch On Meaning-Based Computing
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- Accounting scandals
- Hewlett-Packard acquisitions
- Cloud computing providers
- Multinational companies headquartered in the United States
- Software companies of the United Kingdom
- Computer companies of the United Kingdom
- Companies established in 1996
- 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom
- Companies based in Cambridge
