Autonomy - in a league of its own?

As an indication, however, of the state of Europe's new economy and the attitude of its exchanges - to say nothing of Autonomy itself - this is a major landmark.

Two years ago the company, which develops search and tagging technology for unstructured data, was ready to hit the London Stock Exchange. Unfortunately, the LSE wasn't ready for Autonomy, citing an insufficient trading history. This despite its obvious promise and its blue-chip admirers.

Lynch went instead to Easdaq in Brussels and then New York's Nasdaq. In that time the stock rose from $1.43 to $47 earlier today. Now, finally, Autonomy is coming home.

Lynch doesn't seem bitter that the LSE was disinterested in 1998, mainly because he believes Europe's exchanges have finally seen the error of their ways. With the techMARK, Neuer Markt and Easdaq all open for business, Lynch noted in a recent silicon.com interview: "Now the exit routes are here in Europe, the bright ideas can be developed here."

So how will the firm perform as it debuts in London? The initial signs are good. Autonomy should make the FTSE 100 in December with a market capitalisation in excess of $6bn. Long-term, its success depends on the fickle nature of the market.

Being tarred with a dirty ebusiness brush is just as likely this autumn as basking in the reflected glory of the dot-com boom 12 months ago. Autonomy deserves to escape such punishment. Not only does it offer a technology that no-one can exactly mirror, it is a technology that will place it at the heart of the internet.

Of the companies to emerge in the last half a decade, only Inktomi - the caching provider - and a small number of security specialists promise to play as big a role enabling the internet. Crucially, all of these firms will land major licensing deals and see their technologies embedded in bigger software houses' technology. Autonomy is already in bed with the big three - Microsoft, Intel and Oracle.

If London's traders punish Autonomy severely, we will know once and for all that they really don't understand this technology thing.