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HP accuses Autonomy of false accounting

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20th Nov 2012
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Hewlett-Packard has accused its acquired UK subsidiary Autonomy of accounting improprieties following a write-down of $8.8bn on its $11bn acquisition. 

HP published its fourth quarter earnings today, citing Autonomy's "accounting improprieties and disclosure failures" as the reason for its $6.85 quarterly loss.

HP called in KMPG to conduct due diligence work before the acquisition, effectively reviewing Deloitte's auditing of Autonomy, but both Big Four firms failed to spot any accounting errors.

The company acquired Autonomy in 2011 in a £7.1bn deal, which saw its chief executive Mike Lynch pocket around £500m. 

HP, whose shares fell almost 12% this week in New York, alleged that Autonomy was substantially overvalued at the time of the deal as it announced a non-cash charge of $8.8bn to cover the impairment of goodwill and intangible assets arising from the transactions.

Former Autonomy managers toyed with accounts to "mislead investors and potential buyers" prior to its acquisition of Autonomy, HP alleged.

The majority of the $8.8bn charge also relates to "misrepresentations made to HP in connection with its acquisition of Autonomy and the impact of those improprieties, failures and misrepresentations on the expected future financial performance of Autonomy business over the long term," the statement read. 

HP said the rest of the charge referred to the trading value of HP stock and referred the matter to the Serious Fraud Office, asking both US and UK authorities to investigate the case. 

The independent inquiry was conducted by PwC after an Autonomy whistle-blower approached HP with the findings when founder Lynch left in May this year. 

However, the former management team were "shocked" by allegations and refuted the claim. 

Autonomy is a specialist company in unstructured data analysis, which HP claimed at the time of acquisition would be help them to "reinvent the business analytics software and services space" and bolster their cloud computing offerings. 

During a conference call, chief executive of HP Meg Whitman said: "When you're lied to, it's hard to find. Autonomy was smaller and less profitable than we thought." 

Net revenue at HP fell 6.7% to almost £30bn for the fourth quarter ended 31 October from around $32bn a year, below analyst expectations.

It experienced the steepest drop in revenue in its personal computer division at 14%. 

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Replies (18)

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By essex accountant
21st Nov 2012 12:57

due diligence

Wasn't due diligence done by HP before they bought the shares?

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Replying to stratty:
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By david5541
21st Nov 2012 14:57

yes it was

but because of the time of the acquisition of autonomy, there was alot of aggressive accepted accounting techniques/polcices around and it did not take much as a tin pot growth company with software that had a USP to use such accounting policies. and true and fair is not a judgment of value only accuracy. 

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the sea otter
By memyself-eye
21st Nov 2012 13:27

Due it may have been

Diligent it seems not (have to be careful lest I end up 'twittered')

So that's KPMG, Deloittes and Price Waterhouse have all pored over the numbers - that only leaves Ernst and Young to have a bash!

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Replying to Kent accountant:
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By Subhash Kamath
27th Nov 2012 12:32

Autonomy

Maybe you & I could put forward our names - I've only got 15 years to retirement - could be a job for life !!!

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By carnmores
21st Nov 2012 14:22

i think its all going to come down to

the fact that 50% of the staff have left and contracts with them - culture clash

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Replying to dhughes1975:
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By Paul_S
22nd Nov 2012 12:31

My money is on a culture clash

carnmores wrote:

the fact that 50% of the staff have left and contracts with them - culture clash

Having witnessed several takeovers of UK companies by US companies, there is indeed a culture clash.

In my experience the MD and other key staff will often agree to stay on after the deal, but are normally gone inside anywhere from 6 months to a year.

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By david5541
21st Nov 2012 15:00

kpmg were the dudes here

 

o        KPMG conducted due diligence of Deloitte audit at Autonomy

 

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By david5541
21st Nov 2012 15:03

what was said in accountancy age

"HP is extremely disappointed to find that some former members of Autonomy's management team used accounting improprieties, misrepresentations and disclosure failures to inflate the underlying financial metrics of the company, prior to Autonomy's acquisition by HP," it said in a statement to investors.

"These efforts appear to have been a wilful effort to mislead investors and potential buyers, and severely impacted HP management's ability to fairly value Autonomy at the time of the deal. We remain 100% committed to Autonomy and its industry-leading technology."

A non-cash impairment charge of $8.8bn related to Autonomy was announced in HP's Q4 2012 statement. More than $5bn is linked to the accounting misrepresentations discovered during the investigation. The balance related to the trading of HP stock and a revaluation of autonomy's future performance – and the synergies from the deal.

An example given by HP of the misrepresentations include negative-margin hardware sales mis-described as ‘license revenue', which affected future growth calculations. These negative-margin sales are estimated to represent 10%-15% of Autonomy's revenues.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Serious Fraud Office, have been notified of the issue by HP. 

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By carnmores
21st Nov 2012 17:13

@David

you seem to think you know a lot about this , HOW?

the article states

The balance related to the trading of HP stock and a revaluation of autonomy's future performance – and the synergies from the deal. YOU CAN READ INTO THIS WHAT YOU LIKE ITS ABOUT AS CLEAR AS WHAT HP INTIMATE AUTONOMYS REPORTING TO BE.

An example given by HP of the misrepresentations include negative-margin hardware sales mis-described as ‘license revenue', which affected future growth calculations. These negative-margin sales are estimated to represent 10%-15% of Autonomy's revenues.

 

IF YOU ARE SELLING  HARDWARE WITH SOFTWARE THE PRICING MODEL IS CRUCIAL AND THERE ARE A NUMBER OF ACCEPTABLE SOLUTIONS

THE REAL PROBLEM  RE REVENNUE APPEARS TO BE THE HUGE TURNOVER IN STAFF AND THE MANAGEMENT CULTURE CLASH (YET AGAIN)

 WE SHALL SEE WHETHER THIS IS A GENUINE COMPLAINT OR PART OF THE PLAN TO BLAME THE PREVIOUS HP CEO AND ADVISERS AND GET CASH BACK

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By User deleted
22nd Nov 2012 13:00

Was told at the time of culture clash ...

The example given was that it was the equivalent of a high street motor manufacuturer purchasing an F1 team and then not knowing what to do with it or how to move forward.

HP is/was a lumbering inefficient giant with out-moded highly structured ways which were poles apart from the Autonomy 'free-wheeling' flexible appproach. Trouble was HP tried to impose their rigid stucture on Autonomy and it did not work - hence staff voting with their feet

The skids were under HP long before they bought Autonomy, so the question is - how much of HP claims are genuine and how much is their own 'cover up' to hide their flagging performance?

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By supremetwo
22nd Nov 2012 13:47

Facebook float - no difference.

And no massaged accounting in the Facebook float? 

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By philfromleeds
22nd Nov 2012 14:02

Oh Dear you got to be so careful of the Yanks

Mike Lynch wether he is honest or not better not stay here in the UK. The Yanks will ask Brittain to send him to them and our government will do that. Go to Monoco Mike. Dont wait GO GO GO

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the sea otter
By memyself-eye
22nd Nov 2012 14:07

As an act of British solidarity

I'll stop using my HP12C calculator, my HP colour laser printer and will definitely NOT buy any more of their brown sauce!

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By louisVW4
22nd Nov 2012 16:29

If HP is using this as obfuscation...

...to obscure their flagging performance, it's a very expensive way of doing it!

All of the Big 4 involved in one way or another; 3 of them paid (lots of $) by HP. Share-droppingly bad PR (how much has that wiped off the value?). Likely lots of $m's in legal costs; suing and being sued! Customer Sat impact... the list will go on.

There should be no tricks the folks at HP don't know about the hardware/software business! So, why couldn't they get their DD right?

This sounds like an earlier discussion here about the lack of deep diligence applied by auditors when signing off on their clients' accounts. I don't believe Deloitte couldn't see what's happening. They would have had the history to show how the numbers are stacking up, or not as it now appears.

I'm sure one of you experts on here could have seen through this, if that's what this turns out to be.

HP should never have got into this position. They must carry the lion's share of blame... probably more for ineptitude, but they paid the big boys big bucks to advise them. Could it be they are not actually any good at what they were paid to do? Where's their culpability?

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Replying to stepurhan:
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By Paul_S
27th Nov 2012 12:58

Who needs auditors?

louisVW4 wrote:
All of the Big 4 involved in one way or another; 3 of them paid (lots of $) by HP. Share-droppingly bad PR (how much has that wiped off the value?).

Taking a step back, Autonomy's Preliminary results for 2010 (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomy_Corporation - see table at top RHS; the original has disappeared from the Autonomy web site):

 

Revenue     US$870.4 million (2010)
Operating income     US$316.4 million (2010)
Net income     US$217.3 million (2010)

 

I just don't see how it could be worth so many billions in the first place.

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By jo1
22nd Nov 2012 18:27

Honesty and USA Big Business will never sit side-by-side

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By j.arbuthnott326
23rd Nov 2012 16:03

Autonomy and DD Audit

Autonomy is a UK company if the allegations are true it is a huge indictment on the effectiveness of Audit firms conducting DD and not being able to see the wood for the trees,a basic lack of commercial awareness or worst still being complicit.   

It needs to be investigated it reflects badly on British corporate governance

That said fraud aside, it is buyer beware, someone will be poring over these warranties!

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