Autonomy hit by concerns over snooping software

Shares in Autonomy continued their recent slump today as investors fretted over the performance of its new £565 million snooping software.

The British software industry champion led by Mike Lynch, the first Silicon Fen star of the dot-com boom, saw its stock dive nearly 10% today down 128p at 1190p despite record quarterly results. That has extended the fall in Autonomy shares to nearly 25% over the last six weeks.

At issue is the performance of Autonomy's 2008 £565 million acquisition of Interwoven, a business which takes data from social networking sites and tracks what people might be saying about certain companies or brands.

Autonomy said half-year profits have nearly doubled to $121 million (£74 million) on revenues up 40% at $324 million.

But Investec analyst Julian Yates warned Interwoven may not be doing as well as hoped.

"Interwoven numbers are not broken out," said Yates. "Given the core Autonomy business is performing ahead of expectations, it is possible Interwoven is performing below expectations."