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HP gains control of Autonomy

HP officially wins control of Autonomy. The deal has been criticized by analysts for being too pricey.

Larry Dignan

Hewlett-Packard said today it has gained control of Autonomy via a cash tender offer.

The company said that it has acquired more than 87 percent of Autonomy for £25.50 ($39.72) per share in cash.

With the deal, which has been derided for being too expensive by analysts, HP gains 25,000 customer accounts and can pursue its plan to beef up its software unit.

Autonomy is seen as a specialist in managing unstructured data. HP CEO Meg Whitman said Autonomy allows the company "to manage and extract meaning from that data to drive insight, foresight and better decision making."

Mike Lynch, current CEO of Autonomy, will continue to run the business and report to Whitman. Lynch has been on the receiving end of barbs from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Ellison said that Autonomy was shopped to Oracle. Lynch disagreed.

This story originally posted on ZDNet's Between the Lines.