HP board members have been sued by shareholders alleging that the members knew of the issues related to Autonomy prior to its acquisition for $8.8bn.
HP chief executive Meg Whitman has been sued for making ‘fake claims’ over the £7.8bn acquisition of Autonomy.
According to the court papers filed by shareholders in California board members allegedly knew non-public inside information regarding accounting improprieties associated to HP’s acquisition of Autonomy before the deal was struck.
The shareholders have also alleged that directors had violated their ‘duty of loyalty and good faith’ by failing to carry out proper due diligence before going ahead with the deal.
In November 2012, HP took an $8.8bn (£5.4bn) write-down against the $11.1bn it had paid for the British firm it acquired in 2011.
In addition, HP called in regulators and saw its chairman and two board directors quit following the acquisition.
The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) also launched a probe into the matter following the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the UK Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) probe.
