Is Hewlett-Packard Getting Off the Autonomy Suit on the Cheap?

By Paul Ausick Updated Apr 27, 11:56PM EDT · Published Jun 27, 2:10PM EDT

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It didn’t take long for Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) and its investors to figure out that the 2011 $11 billion acquisition of Britain’s Autonomy Corp. was a disaster. A year after the deal, HP wrote down $8.8 billion related to the deal. Now, according to an exclusive report at Reuters, HP will announce as soon as Monday that it has settled three shareholder lawsuits related to the Autonomy acquisition.

An unnamed source told Reuters that as part of the settlement, attorneys for the shareholders have agreed to drop all claims against HP’s current and former executives, board members and advisers to the company.

Former officials of Autonomy, however, do not fare as well. The company’s former CEO, Michael Lynch, its former CFO, Sushovan Hussain, and potentially others are already being pursued by HP and the shareholders’ attorneys have agreed to assist HP in chasing those claims.

The shareholder lawsuits were seeking changes to HP’s management, attorneys’ fees and the right to file damage claims against the HP officials responsible for the acquisition. HP has reportedly already shared information it has gathered regarding Autonomy’s accounting with the shareholders’ attorneys.

Attorneys for the shareholders will receive fees for helping HP pursue further claims, but other financial terms of the settlement have not been revealed yet.

It is not clear from the Reuters report whether this imminent settlement eliminates all the litigation overhang for HP related to the disaster known as Autonomy. For HP, having to pursue Autonomy executives remains a distraction from reinvigorating the company’s business. And there is little good news for the company in its business: the PC business is faltering and HP’s efforts to break into the software and services business (of which Autonomy was supposed to be a big part) is having trouble getting off the starting line.

HP shares were down about 0.4% in mid-afternoon trading Friday, at $33.78 in a 52-week range of $20.25 to $35.20.

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About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for a673b.bigscoots-temp.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.