The not guilty verdict handed down Thursday by a jury in federal court in San Francisco was the result of an 11-week criminal trial that detailed HP's 2011 acquisition of Autonomy, the business software company that Lynch founded and later led as chief executive in the UK.
HP initially celebrated the acquisition as a major coup that would set the Palo Alto, California-based company on a promising new path, but soon came to regret it under then-Chief Executive Meg Whitman.
The jury acquitted Lynch of all 15 felony counts he was charged with.
Late in the trial, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer dismissed a securities fraud charge contained in a Department of Justice indictment dating back to 2018.
It took years and a series of legal battles to extradite Lynch from the UK, with his trial finally starting in mid-March.
Lynch, 58, had been free on $100 million bail.
Being accused of massive fraud marked a dramatic turn of events for the entrepreneur once known as Britain's Bill Gates, a title he seemed deserving of after negotiating the sale of Autonomy to make more than $800 million.
The acquittal vindicates Lynch, who for years vehemently denied doing anything wrong while portraying HP as a technology disaster.
It's another setback for HP, which has long accused Lynch of misleading it into the deal, exacerbating its problems and tarnishing the company's legacy dating back to its founding in a Silicon Valley garage in 1939.
