High Court finds Autonomy's published results were dishonestly misrepresented before HP deal
Autonomy Corporation plc (acquired by Hewlett-Packard) · Enterprise software
The case in brief
Visible before detection
Checks that could have surfaced it, on hindsight
Operating-metric verification
Would have tested software versus hardware revenue against contracts and customer records.
Can mislead when: Contract staff do not appear in EPFO. Vahan access needs licensed APIs. Some businesses have no physical trace.
Third-party confirmation
Would have confirmed reseller and end-customer sales with counterparties.
Can mislead when: Counterparties can collude or ignore requests. A non-response is logged as a gap, never as a pass.
Counterparty existence
Would have checked that reseller counterparties were independent of Autonomy.
Can mislead when: Real companies can be used as pass-throughs. Existence does not prove a real trade, so C6 and C7 still apply.
Unit economics & burn
Would have compared reported growth with cash conversion.
Can mislead when: Cost allocation is a judgement call. Kubr shows its assumptions and lets the user change them.
Where Kubr services would have helped
Valuation context
Offered in India- C4 Would have checked that reseller counterparties were independent of Autonomy.
- C9 Would have compared reported growth with cash conversion.
Financial diligence
Offered in India- C4 Would have checked that reseller counterparties were independent of Autonomy.
- C9 Would have compared reported growth with cash conversion.
- C10 Would have tested software versus hardware revenue against contracts and customer records.
Model check
Offered in India- C9 Would have compared reported growth with cash conversion.
- C10 Would have tested software versus hardware revenue against contracts and customer records.
Proceeds tracer
Offered in India- C4 Would have checked that reseller counterparties were independent of Autonomy.
- C10 Would have tested software versus hardware revenue against contracts and customer records.
Mapped from the checks each service runs. A hindsight reading of public records, not a promise that the failure would have been found.
Same pattern
A summary of public documents. It reports what the sources say. It is not Kubr's finding and not a statement of guilt.