Judge Rejects Settlement in Shareholder Case Over HP’s Autonomy Acquisition

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Chides company and shareholders’ lawyers for ‘abdication of their responsibility’

We are sure Hewlett-Packard would like nothing more than to efface the memory of its disastrous 2011 acquisition of British software company Autonomy, but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon as right now it is struggling to get a federal judge to accept its settlement proposals in a shareholder lawsuit over the multi-billion dollar debacle — a $11.1 billion acquisition that resulted in a $8.8 billion write-down a year later, of which $5 billion was said to be on account of “serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures” at Autonomy.
According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Friday shot down HP’s settlement proposal in a shareholder lawsuit over the ill-advised acquisition, saying the proposed settlement would have been unfair to shareholders. Back in August, the same judge had rejected the original settlement proposal as it would’ve resulted in the shareholders’ lawyers making up to $48 million in fees.
“The shareholders appear to be relinquishing a whole universe of potential claims regarding HP governance and practices," the judge wrote.
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