LONDON (ShareCast) - Autonomy founder and chief executive Michael Lynch has offloaded 800,000 shares in the data search software giant at an average price of 1,042.7p each, it was announced today.
The £8.34m sale, around 3.8% of Dr Lynch's holding, was in relation to capital gains tax liabilities, according to a statement.
Despite the huge sale he still owns more than 20m Autonomy shares worth over £208m at today’s prices.
Meanwhile, finance boss Sushovan Hussain was rubbing his hands together Monday after exercising 210,000 options at 175.3p each before selling the shares at an average of 1,040.8p. The deal netted Hussain a cool £1.82m.
A run of upbeat statements have helped Autonomy’s share price leap by more than a quarter since early June and to prices not seen since the dying days of the internet boom in 2001.
Just last week the firm, whose software can scan emails and documents for things like fraud and terrorist activity, posted an 80% increase in second quarter profit to $43.7m on sales of $125.6m, adding it also expects the rest of the year to be strong.
Lynch said the performance was driven by strong organic growth across all areas with operating margins at a new record of 40%.
"Despite our conservative approach to the current macro uncertainty, the fact that our fundamental market dynamics and our pipeline going into the second half remain strong leads us to be comfortable with a positive upgrade with respect to the second half of the year," he added.
For the half year, profits rose from $40.3m to $67.4m on revenues of $230.7m up from $138.7m.
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