The mysterious case of Hewlett-Packard’s Autonomy deal In November 2012, Hewlett-Packard Co. stunned investors with news that it was writing down almost $9 billion of its $11.1 billion acquisition of the British software company, Autonomy Corp. H-P HPQ, +0.77% attributed the hefty write-down to “serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations at Autonomy” that occurred prior to H-P’s acquisition. Continue reading