Hewlett-Packard Co.’s (HPQ) claims of financial improprieties at Autonomy Corp. have accounting experts questioning whether the allegations are an attempt to divert attention from yet another bad acquisition.
Hewlett-Packard said yesterday it recorded an $8.8 billion writedown related to its purchase last year of Autonomy, the U.K. software maker. More than $5 billion of that impairment charge was the result of accounting practices at Autonomy, Hewlett-Packard said in a statement. About $200 million of Autonomy’s revenue had been recorded prematurely or improperly, according to Hewlett-Packard’s general counsel.
“How does that translate into a $5 billion write-off?” said Lynn E. Turner, former chief accountant of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a managing director at LitiNomics Inc., an economic and forensic consulting firm. “The big issue isn’t the fraud they’re talking about. The big issue is that HP has made acquisitions that have turned out to be a disaster.”
The writedown follows Hewlett-Packard’s August announcement that it would take a charge of $9.2 billion, largely related to its purchase of Electronic Data Systems Corp. When companies make an acquisition, the difference between the value of the target’s hard assets and the purchase price is known as goodwill. That gets carried on the company’s balance sheet as an asset and is reviewed periodically by public companies.
