Explanation: In 2012, Hewlett-Packard wrote off 9 billion USD of the 11 billion USD it paid for Autonomy, a software company that it purchased one year earlier. After the purchase was completed, HP realized that the Autonomy accounting statements were not accurate. This resulted in a nearly 80 percent drop in the value of Autonomy once the accounting irregularities were corrected.
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Acquisitions and Mergers
Learning Objective: 06-01 The reasons for the failure of many diversification efforts.
Bloom's: Analyze
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
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