HP Takes A $9B Hit

Taking a $9 billion hit on a company you just bought for $11 billion is not the greatest way to "turn things around." Smooth move HP. It's had to take a nearly $9 billion writedown on the value of one of its biggest assets, the British software company Autonomy, following the discovery of serious accounting "improprieties." These concerns cast major doubt over the $11 billion sum that HP coughed up to purchase Autonomy last year, and have a direct impact on both these Q4 earnings and the reported earnings for 2012.