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Hewlett-Packard says it’s the victim of fictitious accounting at company it acquired
WaPo ^ | 11/120/2012 | Unattributed

Posted on 11/20/2012 9:28:22 AM PST by mojito

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To: mojito

Victim, my ass! This is why HP and all big companies employ hoardes of accountants and attorneys. It’s a FAILURE to perform due diligence prior to the deal. Yes companies can lie and fudge a little but NOT this much. This is incompetence and following the Obama Rule, ones own incompetence is always to be blamed on others.


21 posted on 11/20/2012 9:59:30 AM PST by bigbob
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To: Gaffer

Actually, Leo started this fiasco, but blame it on the women.
< P>
Meg does own a large share of this mess; she was on the board when Leo started it and a CEO can’t do something like a $10b aquisition without board approval. Not because she is a woman.


22 posted on 11/20/2012 10:06:20 AM PST by 5thGenTexan
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To: 5thGenTexan

I’ve been an engineer for nearly 40 years. During that time HP really meant something, especially for instrumentation.

When they gave up the instrumentation division, their innovation, their smarts and vision and turned the company into a printer giveaway to sell inkjet cartridges and the odd PC and laptops, I knew it could only go south from there.

I have an HP desktop....stupid me bought an HP printer to go with. The damned thing wouldn’t even talk to the computer much of the time. The wireless option was worthless. Completely worthless.

I finally trashed the printer and got an Epson 545 with AirPrint...much much better. All my Apples can print to it....seamless connection BTW.


23 posted on 11/20/2012 10:11:11 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: mojito

This is a distraction, folks!

HP wanted to hide the fact that their “restructuring” is going in the wrong direction with revenue lower than last year, missing analyst expectations.

This “fraud” blows that story off the front page.


24 posted on 11/20/2012 10:11:39 AM PST by Erik Latranyi (When religions have to beg the gov't for a waiver, we are already under socialism.)
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To: mojito

I wonder what happened here...how the heck can you come up with a valuation that is 10 times reality?

This should be interesting to see how this happened.

And I would change the board. They are useless.


25 posted on 11/20/2012 10:11:49 AM PST by buffaloguy
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To: Erik Latranyi

“HP wanted to hide the fact that their “restructuring” is going in the wrong direction with revenue lower than last year, missing analyst expectations.”

I’ll bet that is the real story.


26 posted on 11/20/2012 10:13:44 AM PST by buffaloguy
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To: stuartcr

Or perhaps some sort of creative payoff with a wink and a nod from both sides because Fortune 100 companies (is HP still fortune 100) simply don’t make those types of mistakes.

If it is indeed just fraud on the part of the asset they acquired I’m sure some accounting firms have their butts on the line too.


27 posted on 11/20/2012 10:17:57 AM PST by Usagi_yo
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To: dfwgator

Same here—they knew my entire model was bad, just tried to ride out the warranties. Put me off of HP forever.


28 posted on 11/20/2012 10:17:57 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: xzins; mojito; Bob

“Autonomy makes search engines that help companies find vital information stored across computer networks.”

Maybe HP should have tried out some of Autonomy Corps equipment prior to purchase.


29 posted on 11/20/2012 10:18:09 AM PST by Donkey Odious ( Adapt, improvise, and overcome - now a motto for us all.)
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To: bigbob

Victim, my ass! This is why HP and all big companies employ hoardes of accountants and attorneys. It’s a FAILURE to perform due diligence prior to the deal. Yes companies can lie and fudge a little but NOT this much. This is incompetence and following the Obama Rule, ones own incompetence is always to be blamed on others.
____________________________________

Step one: how much does the company have in the bank as cash?

Step two: how much deferred revenue?

Step three: how much deferred expenses?

If you are valuing the company on two and three, beware. I’m sure the accounting firms will be held harmless.


30 posted on 11/20/2012 10:19:14 AM PST by cicero2k
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To: Gaffer
Exactly. It is their mismanagement that has caused the fall. That is linked to the bad aquisition investments, falling product quality, lost innovation, etc.

I am a 25 yr engineer, with my last 14 in HP after they bought the company I worked for. I resolved to accept the EER package this last go-round.

Every mention of HP in the business news since then has reaffirmed my decision.

31 posted on 11/20/2012 10:32:27 AM PST by 5thGenTexan
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To: mojito

HP used to make the best scientific and medical test equipment. Somewhere along they line the thought making $99 printers and selling $50 ink cartridges was the way to go.


32 posted on 11/20/2012 10:33:11 AM PST by Usagi_yo
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To: Menehune56

remember xerox? i bet they had suffered the same fate. managment incompetence.


33 posted on 11/20/2012 10:50:40 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Gaffer
I have an HP desktop....stupid me bought an HP printer to go with. The damned thing wouldn’t even talk to the computer much of the time. The wireless option was worthless. Completely worthless.

I won't buy a HP computer but I did buy a HP 7515 wireless printer a few months ago. Works like a champ. No probs so far.

34 posted on 11/20/2012 10:52:02 AM PST by Getsmart64
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To: Getsmart64

In my experience:

HP laptops have definitie vacuum issues,

HP Pavilion desktops are just about the best you can get for the money,

and the all-in-one scanner/printer is a gold-plated teh winnah that would have been a bargain for a benjamin. (At our level of printing, cartridges last a year.)


35 posted on 11/20/2012 11:03:57 AM PST by ExGeeEye (I'll give y'all 90 days for the wounds to heal; then we start on 2014. Carpe GOP!)
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To: rarestia

When I started at my current employer 12 years ago, it was a Compaq shop with the exception of an old HP “coffee table” server (I think it was the LH line).

I was so impressed that the thing was still in service with little in the way of maintenance, that when we bought several new servers, I went with HP on the recommendation of our software vendor. About six months later, I bought 5 more. The next few years showed that to be the worst decisions I ever made. Desktop quality product in a server box, IMHO.

That was 10 years ago, and nothing in my server room has been HP since. I have had stellar performance from both IBM and Dell equipment over the last decade>.

HP lost me as a customer, basically forever. I won’t even consider their products.


36 posted on 11/20/2012 11:10:53 AM PST by chrisser (Starve the Monkeys!)
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To: chrisser

I’m in the opposite side of the house. I’ll swear by HP enterprise-class hardware. I’ve installed and maintained everything from the old Compaq white box dishwashers to the latest ProLiant-class DL and ML line servers and love everything about them: intuitive design, easy installation, great management software and tools.

IBM and Dell were a running joke in our engineering offices. Dell servers are clunky and just try too hard while IBM servers are overpriced for a product that’s more prone to problems than the price dictates. Add on top of that very awkward installation and wasteful “features” (why won’t the damn UID light turn off?!), we always went to HP for our hardware. I still would for server hardware.

Desktop stuff... well I’m a tinkerer and build my own systems from scratch (heavy ASUS/nVidia promoter), so I’ve not played with big name mfg desktops. I’ve had both Dell and HP laptops for work and have had no complaints about either. HP workstations seem to be a little bit more forgiving than Dells in my experience.


37 posted on 11/20/2012 11:16:47 AM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: Menehune56
Not her buy. She was hired 2 weeks before this deal closed. You can literally lay this on at her predicessors feet.
38 posted on 11/20/2012 11:23:27 AM PST by Freeport (The proper application of high explosives will remove all obstacles.)
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To: Menehune56
Well, Meg Whitman’s toast.

Autonomy was acquired and championed by her predecessor, Leo Apotheker.

39 posted on 11/20/2012 11:36:54 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine (/S?)
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To: Pearls Before Swine

OK, Meg can stay on.


40 posted on 11/20/2012 1:36:05 PM PST by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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