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Large entities can often mask accounting fraud with the helpnof an accounting firm. Think Enron and Auther Anderson. I'm pretty sure HP is going to sue the beg

Large entities can often mask accounting fraud with the helpnof an accounting firm. Think Enron and Auther Anderson. I'm pretty sure HP is going to sue the begeezus out of a number of complicent players. They should start with the former CEO of Autonomy.

raverbashing 14y ago
In fact, HP should start suing the one that had the brilliant idea of acquiring Autonomy: Leo Apotheker
- skrebbel 14y ago
  If he got bought, yes. Otherwise, since when is making horrible business decisions a crime?
  - raverbashing 14y ago
    It is naive, given the facts, to consider that it was a mere "horrible business decision" especially in face of the values involved
- chollida1 14y ago
  > In fact, HP should start suing the one that had the brilliant idea of acquiring Autonomy: Leo Apotheker Why? for making a bad business decision? The board approved it. That's why there is a board. The finance department at HP signed off on it. The tech department at HP looked at the tech and signed off on it. Everyone signed off on it, it didn't' work out.
  - raverbashing 14y ago
    Apparently, not that clear-cut http://www.businessinsider.com/meg-whitman-hp-autonomy-blame-2012-11 http://www.businessinsider.com/meg-whitman-hp-autonomy-blame... "Why didn't the HP board question the purchase price in the first place? That's what Benjamin Reitzes, an analyst for Barclays Capital, asked on the call. Whitman's answer: The board wasn't responsible. The two people who were responsible, in her view, are now gone: her predecessor, Léo Apotheker and HP's longtime strategy chief, Shane Robison, who retired in November 2011, shortly after the Autonomy deal went through. "
    - chollida1 14y ago
      I'm not sure that invalidates anything I said. It's true that the buck stops with the CEO. It was after all, his decision to make the deal. My point was what are you going to sue him for? He did the right thing. He made up his mind, ran it past the board for approval, ran it past finance for approval, got an outside auditor to do due diligence. All approved. The deal went through. It turned out to be a stupendously bad business decision. Should twitter be able to sue the developer who made the incredibly bad design decision to use ruby on rails and architect their system as a blog rather than than a message queue? Bad decisions happen, people loose their jobs over them. it's much harder to sue someone when they've done the due diligence and had the decision signed off by many other people.
      - raverbashing 14y ago
        Yes, I believe everything you said is valid, it is a bad business decision, unless evidence to something else is found. And in the end, it was not something that was done hidden from other people, if it was a bad decision they should have stood their ground.
kitsune_ 14y ago
Back when the deal was announced I was exteremely skeptical. $10.2 billions for a relatively unknown UK software company that focuses on document management? 10 billions?! Their (Autonomy's) past acquisitions looked rather erratic to me. I also did not understand as to why a hardware company like HP would buy a software company in the first place. Then there were all the glassdoor posts discussed here on HN... the whole deal just looked shady even back then. edit: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2902749 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2902749 I just stumbled upon this comment by AlexMuir, it was the most upvoted comment on the HN discussion about HP's acquisition of Autonomy AlexMuir pretty much called it.
- maxerickson 14y ago
  One of HPs many personalities wants to be IBM (hence the software services acquisition).
rbanffy 14y ago
They could start with the board who hired Apotheker.
- VonGuard 14y ago
  The same board that fired Hurd? The HP board needs to go away. They've been fucking things up for years. It's one of those situations where, after 3 CEO's, the first of which was kicking ass, maybe it's time to consider that the board is the problem, not the CEO.
  - TheCondor 14y ago
    Yeah. The same board that spied on itself and executives to find leaks. They are clearly part of the problem. HP's vaunted culture isn't what they think it is and that's part of the problem too. They are too big for their britches, literally, need to cut some pieces off and get smaller again before they become smaller.
mongol 14y ago
Ah, Arthur Andersen. I had to refresh my memory by reading through its Wikipedia page. What a disaster.

raverbashing 14y ago

In fact, HP should start suing the one that had the brilliant idea of acquiring Autonomy: Leo Apotheker

skrebbel 14y ago
If he got bought, yes. Otherwise, since when is making horrible business decisions a crime?
- raverbashing 14y ago
  It is naive, given the facts, to consider that it was a mere "horrible business decision" especially in face of the values involved
chollida1 14y ago
> In fact, HP should start suing the one that had the brilliant idea of acquiring Autonomy: Leo Apotheker Why? for making a bad business decision? The board approved it. That's why there is a board. The finance department at HP signed off on it. The tech department at HP looked at the tech and signed off on it. Everyone signed off on it, it didn't' work out.
- raverbashing 14y ago
  Apparently, not that clear-cut http://www.businessinsider.com/meg-whitman-hp-autonomy-blame-2012-11 http://www.businessinsider.com/meg-whitman-hp-autonomy-blame... "Why didn't the HP board question the purchase price in the first place? That's what Benjamin Reitzes, an analyst for Barclays Capital, asked on the call. Whitman's answer: The board wasn't responsible. The two people who were responsible, in her view, are now gone: her predecessor, Léo Apotheker and HP's longtime strategy chief, Shane Robison, who retired in November 2011, shortly after the Autonomy deal went through. "
  - chollida1 14y ago
    I'm not sure that invalidates anything I said. It's true that the buck stops with the CEO. It was after all, his decision to make the deal. My point was what are you going to sue him for? He did the right thing. He made up his mind, ran it past the board for approval, ran it past finance for approval, got an outside auditor to do due diligence. All approved. The deal went through. It turned out to be a stupendously bad business decision. Should twitter be able to sue the developer who made the incredibly bad design decision to use ruby on rails and architect their system as a blog rather than than a message queue? Bad decisions happen, people loose their jobs over them. it's much harder to sue someone when they've done the due diligence and had the decision signed off by many other people.
    - raverbashing 14y ago
      Yes, I believe everything you said is valid, it is a bad business decision, unless evidence to something else is found. And in the end, it was not something that was done hidden from other people, if it was a bad decision they should have stood their ground.

kitsune_ 14y ago

Back when the deal was announced I was exteremely skeptical. $10.2 billions for a relatively unknown UK software company that focuses on document management? 10 billions?! Their (Autonomy's) past acquisitions looked rather erratic to me. I also did not understand as to why a hardware company like HP would buy a software company in the first place. Then there were all the glassdoor posts discussed here on HN... the whole deal just looked shady even back then. edit: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2902749 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2902749 I just stumbled upon this comment by AlexMuir, it was the most upvoted comment on the HN discussion about HP's acquisition of Autonomy AlexMuir pretty much called it.

maxerickson 14y ago
One of HPs many personalities wants to be IBM (hence the software services acquisition).

rbanffy 14y ago

They could start with the board who hired Apotheker.

VonGuard 14y ago
The same board that fired Hurd? The HP board needs to go away. They've been fucking things up for years. It's one of those situations where, after 3 CEO's, the first of which was kicking ass, maybe it's time to consider that the board is the problem, not the CEO.
- TheCondor 14y ago
  Yeah. The same board that spied on itself and executives to find leaks. They are clearly part of the problem. HP's vaunted culture isn't what they think it is and that's part of the problem too. They are too big for their britches, literally, need to cut some pieces off and get smaller again before they become smaller.

mongol 14y ago

Ah, Arthur Andersen. I had to refresh my memory by reading through its Wikipedia page. What a disaster.