BSkyB will get £318m settlement from Hewlett-Packard

BSkyB will be paid a total of £318m as part of the final settlement of a long-running legal case against the Hewlett-Packard subsidiary Electronic Data Systems. Sky announced today that it had reached a final settlement with EDS over a contract issued 10 years ago to build a new customer relationship management system. The broadcaster hired EDS, later taken over by Hewlett-Packard, in 2000. The contract was ended in March 2002 after a "woeful" performance, the high court was told in January when Mr Justice Ramsey made his original ruling in favour of Sky . Sky was originally seeking £709m in compensation from the data provider over the £48m contract. EDS has agreed to pay £318m in damages, costs and interest, including an interim payment of £270m made in February. Lawyers for Sky told the judge during the high court case that the project eventually took six years to complete and if the contractor had been honest about its abilities, BSkyB would have chosen a different company. A Hewlett-Packard spokesman said after the January high court ruling that the legal dispute was a "legacy issue" inherited by the company when it took over EDS in 2008. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".