Hewlett-Packard's $11 billion purchase of Autonomy in 2011 was supposed to make the PC giant a strong player in the surging software market. A year later ... not so much. In November, HP wrote off more than three-quarters of Autonomy's value.
HP attributed much of the write-down to accounting fraud by ousted Autonomy founder Mike Lynch and others. Lynch strongly denied the allegations, which are currently being investigated.
The loss would be a black eye for any company leader, but it's even worse for HP CEO and would-be savior Meg Whitman, who was on the board that approved the Autonomy deal -- over the strenuous objections of HP's chief financial officer. -- David Goldman
