In November 2012, US based information technology Hewlett Packard recorded a write-down of around $8.8 billion related to its $11.3 billion acquisition of the UK based software maker Autonomy Corporation. Hewlett Packard accused Autonomy of deliberately inflating the value of the company prior to its takeover. The former management team of Autonomy flatly rejected the charge.
Required:
Recount the Hewlett Packard Autonomy story to date and critically discuss the view that the occurrence of the Hewlett Packard Autonomy scandal was mainly as a result of a lack of accounting harmonisation between US GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).