Cloud Computing: HP requests fraud investigation into Autonomy claims

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Hewlett Packard charges Autonomy with accounting improprieties, misrepresentations and disclosure failures and is pushing US and UK authorities to pursue criminal action. The company said $5 billion of an $8.8 billion charge is related directly to Autonomy’s misbehavior.

Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman said “outright misrepresentations” about the state of Autonomy’s financial health led to HP overpaying for that company last year and Whitman is recommending civil and criminal investigations into that issue. HP took a loss of $6.85 billion ($3.49 per share) for the year ending Oct. 31, mostly related to a previously announced $8 billion charge related to the company’s Autonomy business…

HP bought Autonomy for $11.1 billion last year. Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch left HP under a cloud last quarter.

According to an HP statement posted today:

“Autonomy’s management team used accounting improprieties, misrepresentations and disclosure failures to inflate the underlying financial metrics of the company, prior to Autonomy’s acquisition by HP. These efforts appear to have been a willful effort to mislead investors and potential buyers, and severely impacted HP management’s ability to fairly value Autonomy at the time of the deal. We remain 100 percent committed to Autonomy and its industry-leading technology.”…

Read more from the source @ http://gigaom.com/cloud/hp-requests-fraud-investigation-into-autonomy-claims/