HP now target of a lawsuit over Autonomy troubles
A suit, seeking class action status, claims HP knew its statements about its acquisition were misleading.
In what could be the beginning of many lawsuits, Hewlett-Packard is now reportedly being sued by an investor over the brewing Autonomy kerfuffle.
Reuters reported today an investor is suing HP, claiming that the company knew its statements about its Autonomy acquisition were misleading, which led the stock to fall.
The proposed class action lawsuit, Nicolow v. Hewlett-Packard, was filed at the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California in San Francisco.
For reference, there is a lot of unrest surrounding HP after it was revealed that the tech giant lost $8.8 billion over its purchase of Autonomy under the leadership of former HP CEO Leo Apotheker. It doesn't help that it's also in combination with allegations of serious fraud on the part of Autonomy during the acquisition process, which is what this whole lawsuit will be about.
HP originally purchased Autonomy in August 2011 for approximately $10 billion -- a figure at the time that was reportedly equivalent to 11 times revenue, stunning many observers.
Now it is clearer why so many people were shocked, but it wouldn't be as surprising if we see this proposed class action suit from shareholders bloom even larger.
This story originally appeared at ZDNet's Between the Lines under the headline "Hewlett-Packard now receiving lawsuits over Autonomy troubles".