Under Fire: Dissecting the Words of Autonomy's Founder

Autonomy Shares Sink — Jul. 16, 2009

Autonomy shares took a hit after disappointing second-quarter sales. Was there a reason for the miss? "No, they didn't [miss]," Lynch told CNBC. "If you actually look at consensus that we run, then the numbers are in-line. We actually preannounced them at the beginning of the month. And those have come in as expected. The earnings were actually ahead of the numbers that were there before." So, why did they preannounce? Was there a whisper the results might disappoint? "What we do when we see part of the announcement, in this case it was the EPS number being ahead of what the market's expecting, then we do that preannouncement ... When you've got that situation, what is better to do is make sure the information is in the market and that you're being transparent about it." He categorizes his outlook as "cautiously optimistic," citing the fact the regulatory side of the business has held up in a tough economy.