HP remains 100% committed to Autonomy products

Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman has reassured customers the future of its Autonomy product line is safe, following the disclosure of an alleged accounting scandal at the company.

“We remain 100 percent committed to Autonomy and its industry-leading technology,” Whitman said during a company webcast.

After acquiring the company for US$10.3 billion last year, HP recently revealed irregularities in the Autonomy books before the sale, charges the company's former management deny.

In a statement issued yesterday, HP said:

“HP is extremely disappointed to find that some former members of Autonomy’s management team used accounting improprieties, misrepresentations and disclosure failures to inflate the underlying financial metrics of the company, prior to Autonomy’s acquisition by HP.

"These efforts appear to have been a willful effort to mislead investors and potential buyers, and severely impacted HP management’s ability to fairly value Autonomy at the time of the deal."

But the company has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the products, with Whitman showing concern for the innocent employees left at Autonomy.

“How would you feel? You would feel abandoned and cheated,” Whitman said.

“What we said is, ‘This is not your fault. Even if you are in the finance department this is not your fault, because this was the result of a willful effort on the part of a small number of Autonomy employees.”

Other executives at HP continued to back the company also, with George Kadifa, the executive vice president in charge of HP software saying:

“We continue to have high expectations for this business."

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