Following on from Google’s buy out of Motorola Mobility, HP has made the purchase at the same time as announcing the redirection of the California-headquartered IT business away from hardware and towards cloud and software services.

The deal, for $11 billion (£6.7 billion), is said by HP to complement its existing technology portfolio in data analytics, the cloud and workflow management. Autonomy will continue to operate as a separate entity.

The transaction was described by Autonomy chief executive officer and founder, Mike Lynch, as a ‘momentous day’ in Autonomy’s history.

Lynch adds: ‘From our foundation in 1996, we have been driven by one shared vision: to fundamentally change the IT industry by revolutionising the way people interact with information.

‘HP shares the vision and provides Autonomy with the platform to bring our world-leading technology and innovation to a truly global stage, making the shift to a future age of the information economy a reality.’

The acquisition represents a 64 per cent premium on top of its market capitalisation yesterday.

Leo Apotheker, HP president and chief executive officer, comments: ‘Autonomy presents an opportunity to accelerate our strategic vision to decisively and profitability lead a large and growing space.

Apotheker says that Cambridge-headquartered Autonomy brings a higher value business service that will help HP’s customers mange the ‘explosion of information’.