HP Cries $8.8 Billion Foul During Q4 Report

In news that eclipses a $6.9 billion loss in Hewlett-Packard Corp.'s fourth quarter, big e-discovery player and HP acquisition Autonomy has found itself embroiled in a financial scandal that has customers and industry experts pondering what the fallout will be.

As Evan Koblentz reports: "Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday it will take an $8.8 billion write down related to its purchase of Autonomy PLC and alleged that Autonomy executives committed accounting fraud to inflate the company's value during the sale."

HP said in a statement: "the majority of this impairment charge, more than $5 billion, is linked to serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures discovered by an internal investigation by HP and forensic review into Autonomy's accounting practices." Autonomy was acquired by HP for $10.3 billion in 2011.

Dechert CIO Michael Shannon said the news caught him wondering about what direction Autonomy and more specifically iManage "was going to go."

For more details about the scandal and reaction from the legal technology community, read the article on LTN online.

Image by Hewlett-Packard