Internal documents shown in court detail how Silicon Valley giant HP planned to publicise the bad news of its $8.8 billion writedown of Autonomy in 2012.
HP acquired Autonomy for $11 billion in 2011, and has claimed Lynch and Hussain cooked the books to make Autonomy look more valuable than it really was. Lynch and Hussain deny wrongdoing. Cue"Project Sutton," an"aggressive" plan cooked up by HP executives to lobby the British government and the world's press about the writedown in 2012.HP's blockbuster $5.1 billion legal battle against Autonomy's former CEO Mike Lynch kicks off Monday
During their opening remarks on Wednesday, Lynch's lawyers pointed to HP's 25-page plan as an example of how it would"blame other people" for the botched Autonomy integration. The document states:"[Autonomy] write-down and underlying could have very negative impact — brand, credibility of board and mgmt, UK government, customers, employees, industry analysts, investors."The documents lay out a detailed, colour-coded timeline of HP's lobbying efforts to the UK government, the firm's own internal communications, and Whitman's media appearances to explain the writeoff.