Hewlett-Packard stock plunges after it reveals huge write-down

Could it get any worse for hobbling Hewlett-Packard Co.? HP's stock plummeted 12 percent on Tuesday to its lowest price in a decade after the company said it was writing off $8.8 billion because it was duped into overpaying for a British software maker. The surprise revelation came as HP reported another quarterly loss and gave a weak first-quarter outlook. "The magnitude of the charge is pretty enormous," said Jayson Noland, senior analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. "It's really bad, and it's really expensive, and it's really distracting. Given all the other things going on that they need to address, you wish this wasn't one of those." The Palo Alto, Calif., technology company said it had...