Hewlett-Packard was ‘vast but floundering’

American techology giant Hewlett-Packard was ‘floundering’ when it entered into a mammoth take-over bid for a British software company, the High Court heard. Dr Mike Lynch’s Cambridge-based firm Autonomy was bought by HP for £8.4 billion ($11.1 billion) in 2011. But the US company claims the software firm used dodgy accounting practices to artificially boost the value of the data business. HP is suing Dr Lynch – dubbed ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’ – and former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain for…