- HP last week reported $8.8 billion writedown
- Attributed more than $5 billion to inflated data from Autonomy
- HP claims to have extensive evidence of efforts by former Autonomy employees to "inflate the underlying financial metrics" of the company
- Autonomy founder denies accounting tricks
Hewlett-Packard (IW 500/7) and the former head of a British software firm it acquired traded barbs Tuesday over HP’s allegations of deliberate accounting tricks ahead of a massive writedown.
Mike Lynch, founder of the software group Autonomy, said in an open letter to HP that members of his management team are being unjustly blamed for the huge writedown in the value of the unit which prompted a big quarterly HP loss.
Lynch said he found it "shocking" that HP made the allegations without offering any specifics.
"I utterly reject all allegations of impropriety," he said. "Autonomy's accounts were overseen by independent auditors Deloitte LLC, who have confirmed the application of all appropriate procedures."
HP last week reported a writedown of $8.8 billion, including more than $5 billion it attributed to inflated data from Autonomy, acquired by HP in 2011 for more than $10 billion.
Lynch said HP should be asked to show "that no part of the $5 billion writedown was, or should be, attributed to HP's operational and financial mismanagement of Autonomy since the acquisition."
