I don’t really see the problem. If the books are accurate, the accounting treatments to GAAP, the financials audited, the diligence executed faithfully… well, yeah, if they buyer overpaid that seems like a poor business decision on the buyer’s part.
Autonomy sold a lot of hardware and booked it as sales, but hide the costs as marketing.
The also signed deals with resellers and recorded it as sales, but without actually selling software to the end customer.
This made their proprietary software look far more valuable than it really was.
That's why the CFO spent five years in prison for fraud [1] and Lynch lost a civil suit in the UK [2].
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/13/ex-autonomy...
[2] https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Autonomy...
A big "if." That seems to be what the trial was about, although I have to admit I haven't followed the evidence. I didn't even know this trial was taking place.
Usually the auditors have to sign off on the books, and they're the ones who get sued if they fail to detect fraud.
But yeah, HP management's got to be making Dave and Bill spin in their graves. The real carrier of the HP legacy is Agilent and its spinoffs.
HP sued its founder and former chief financial officer, claiming they "artificially inflated Autonomy's reported revenues, revenue growth and gross margins".
Mr Justice Hildyard said HP had "substantially won" its case.