Misys founder exited with £1.1m pay-off

Kevin Lomax has walked away from Misys with a £1.1m pay-off after his aborted attempt to take the company private this year.

Mr Lomax left the underperforming software developer after protracted talks with private equity and industry buyers failed to result in a bid being made for the company.

Shareholders at the company's annual general meeting, held days after Mr Lomax's departure, described his tactics as "Machiavellian" before criticising the company's operating performance under his leadership. Sir Dominic Cadbury, chairman of Misys, said: "I am not going to try and pretend that the record is anything but disappointing."

Mr Lomax was contractually entitled to around £900,000 in salary and pension benefits, and has also been compensated for stock options. However the payment includes a clause that part of the payment will be returned if he takes up another job.

A spokesman for Mr Lomax said: "Kevin has made shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds over the years and that must count for something."

He noted that Misys was the first software company to enter the FTSE 100, and that at its peak it commanded a valuation of £5.5bn.

Mike Lawrie, who replaced Mr Lomax as chief executive, said Misys had missed its potential to grow in a valuable part of the market over the past few years as the company failed to integrate its products and offer services to its customers. He said Misys needed to rethink its business model as it should paint itself as a solutions provider, not a software company, that offered services in the banking and healthcare markets. He said this approach would alleviate the need to split up the company's assets.