Autonomy Unit iManage Exits HP With Buyout

Hewlett-Packard has divested itself of an Autonomy asset, after the management team of iManage completed a buyout from the technology giant.

The buyout comes as HP is in the midst of its own corporate restructuring. HP will become two separate businesses on 1 November, with one unit selling commercial products (servers, storage appliances, networking etc), whilst the other sells PCs and printers.

Management Buyout

The iManage business that has now fully exited HP provides a work management solution that targets legal, accounting, and financial services firms around the world.

It claims to have 3,000 customers and says that it continued to grow in its last full fiscal year under HP ownership.

It will now be headquartered in Chicago, with offices in Silicon Valley, London and Bangalore.

In addition, iManage co-founder and current General Manager Neil Araujo will assume the role of CEO of the management-owned company. Rafiq Mohammadi, also a co-founder and former CTO of iManage, is returning to the company as Chief Scientist.

“With this buyout now complete, the iManage team has rededicated itself to our customer and partner community around the world,” said Araujo. “They have trusted us with their most important assets, and we are proud to begin a new era of innovation and ultimate market leadership in partnership with them.”

iManage said it will continue utilising HP cloud services for its private and hybrid cloud offerings. The company said it will also resell relevant HP products, including TeleForm and HP Process Automation, and will have ongoing access to other relevant technology, including HP IDOL. In addition, iManage will maintain its partnership with HP Managed Print Services for document process automation solutions.

“It’s rare in enterprise software to see a management team with 18 years continuous experience in a market space make the decision to recommit and go deeper,” said Melissa Webster, Program VP, Content and Digital Media Technologies at IDC. “It says a lot about the company’s belief in its opportunity, and its confidence in its product direction and the loyalty of its customers.”

Autonomy Unit

The iManage identity was first created six years ago in 2009, when British software giant Autonomy acquired the web content management vendor Interwoven for £571m.

And then iManage was of course included when HP acquired Autonomy in 2011 for $11.1 billion (£7.3bn).

That acquisition proved to be disastrous for HP, with many believing that HP had vastly overpaid for the company. In 2012 HP announced an $8.8 billion (£5.8bn) write-down, with Autonomy execs were accused of creating inflated financials and accounting fraud.

The former Autonomy management team have always denied the fraud allegations and have in turn accused HP of “mismanagement” concerning the takeover.

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