The latest chapter in HP's recent history sees it reduce the value of its Automony acquisition by $8.8bn. HP paid $11.7bn for the company back in August 2011.
At the time HP said the acquisition positioned it as a leader in the large and growing enterprise information management space.
But now it says it was wilfully misled by 'former' members of Autonomy's management team in the lead up to its acquisition. Serious stuff.
Let's not forget HP wrote off a similar amount as a result to the failure of its EDS acquisition to perform. It acquired EDS in 2008 for $13.9bn.
And don't forget in 2010 HP paid $1.2bn for smartphone maker Palm. About a year later it discontinued the product line.
One source told me that these three bad acquisitions tell a story. "HP is either stupid or unloved."
What do you think?
At the time HP said the acquisition positioned it as a leader in the large and growing enterprise information management space.
But now it says it was wilfully misled by 'former' members of Autonomy's management team in the lead up to its acquisition. Serious stuff.
Let's not forget HP wrote off a similar amount as a result to the failure of its EDS acquisition to perform. It acquired EDS in 2008 for $13.9bn.
And don't forget in 2010 HP paid $1.2bn for smartphone maker Palm. About a year later it discontinued the product line.
One source told me that these three bad acquisitions tell a story. "HP is either stupid or unloved."
What do you think?
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Or too many vested interest making fat fees to stop the deal? It called the deal junkie culture internal and external. Well HP should seek compensation.
Maybe this signals a need for change in "buying" revenue often hyped up to sell instead should be more focused on buying sustainable technologies?
Executives at Autonomy and EDS put the proverbial lipstick on the bulldog and sold to gullible HP when they realized that their best days were over. It was their job to realize as much money for themselves as possible. HP hired audit firms and banks who were chasing fees to approve the deal. Easy way to make a lot of money, just approve the deal, use some cheap labour to do the investigation, done deal. Of course, morale at EDS (dont know Autonomy, worked for EDS for 20 years though) is absolutely awful. Meg has slashed staff, cut salaries, off shored to India where the quality of work has nose dived as the typical incompetents answer to boosting profits. Of course she will follow her two predecessors, one fired for incompetence, the other for sexual misconduct, but with pockets loaded with cash. The workers will be unemployed, but never mind, Meg is ok. HP management has proven itself at all levels to be totally incompetent, why would any company do business with them. Three companies, HP, EDS, Autonomy have been destroyed by these incompetents. Absolutely awful, they are a disgrace to the management profession.
What happened to due diligence?
Hi Matt X
Have you ever heard of people that get contracts and sub contract them to cheap offshore labour and take their cut - known as Ringers?
Not individuals but I've seen plenty of consultancies do similar things, charging for experts but supplying cheap inexperienced onshored staff. I doubt your ringers are importing cheap labour by the planeload with taxpayer-subsidised allowances after all. If your ringers do exist, they're surely a depressingly predictable symptom of a UK IT industry that has long since abandoned any concern for quality or investing in its own skills base. When in Rome...
For many years, EDS would bring into the UK workers from the USA mostly, on visitor visas. They were actually caught at one point doing this. I would suspect that they continue to do this, but with Indians. I also suspect that many UK firms share this practice. Many of the UK I T workforce is unemployed or underemployed, but why not bring in cheaper overseas workers. Quality is poor, but who cares as long as the fees are paid.