HP’s Explanation Still Makes No Sense
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Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- My Bloomberg colleague Jesse Druckerhas an article today that puts some numbers on Hewlett-PackardCo.’s allegations of book-cooking at Autonomy Corp. HP says thefinancial-reporting improprieties at Autonomy caused more than$5 billion of the $8.8 billion writedown that it disclosedyesterday.
The article underscores how HP’s explanation doesn’t makesense. About $200 million of Autonomy’s revenue had beenrecorded prematurely or improperly over a two-year periodbeginning in 2009, HP’s general counsel, John Schultz, said inan interview for Drucker’s story. Autonomy’s former executivesdeny HP’s claims. That would be equivalent to about 12 percentof Autonomy’s revenue for 2009 and 2010 combined.