HP to Take $8.8 Billion Hit Over 'Inflated' Acquisition

Citing "serious accounting improprieties," Hewlett-Packard is taking an $8.8 billion charge on its 2011 acquisition of software firm Autonomy, the company announced on Tuesday. “HP is extremely disappointed to find that some former members of 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," reads a statement from the company. "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% committed to...