Shareholders of HP have been carrying out legal action for previously claiming that they acquired British based company Autonomy for $8.8bn when the figure was in fact $10.7bn. Outraged shareholders decided to lawyer up and come out with both fists swinging, to which HP agreed on a settlement.
The Register explained the settlement terms and process:
“That settlement would see shareholders drop their lawsuit in exchange for HP picking up their legal bills – with an upper limit of $48m – and exonerate past and current HP management in exchange for presenting a united front in a legal battle with Autonomy and their auditors in the UK.”
US District Judge Charles Breyer simply commented “That’s out” – which refers to the lawyers hired by HP getting their payments sorted, he claims it isn’t in the shareholders bests interests to do so as reported by Reuters.
HP’s attorneys have now announced plans to not only sue the company, but also take on their auditors – Deloitte & Touche.
Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy’s chief financial officer, has been portrayed as the person to blame for this whole ordeal. Working with his attorney John Kekker to kill the settlement – Kekker was quoted saying “this is a joke” and “If it were a carcass, animals would walk around it, it stinks so much.”
All this has become quite the mess, hasn’t it?
Image courtesy of Motorsports News Wire
