Hewlett-Packard says it’s the victim of fictitious accounting at company it acquired

WaPo ^ | 11/120/2012 | Unattributed

[mojito]

Hewlett-Packard Co. said that a British company it bought for $9.7 billion last year lied about its finances, resulting in a massive write-down of the value of the business.

CEO Meg Whitman avoided calling it a fraud, but said Tuesday that there were “serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations at Autonomy Corporation PLC.”

HP is taking an $8.8 billion charge in its latest quarter largely to align the accounting value of Autonomy with its real value.

The revelation is another blow for HP, which is struggling to reinvent itself as PC and printer sales shrink. Its shares hit a 10-year low in morning trading.

Among other things, Autonomy makes search engines that help companies find vital information stored across computer networks. Acquiring it was part of an attempt by HP to strengthen its portfolio of high-value products and services for corporations and government agencies.

[Caipirabob]

A LOT of good SOX strangulations did for us here!

[GalaxyAB]

Not quite correct. She became CEO two weeks before the deal closed. But she was on the BOD that approved the acquisition.