Judge OKs HP's cash-free settlement plan in Autonomy investor suit HP has won court approval of a deal that would settle a lawsuit brought by shareholders over HP's botched acquisition of software maker Autonomy. US District Judge Charles Breyer has granted preliminary approval of the latest version of HP's proposed settlement, Bloomberg reports, despite having rejected similar proposals …
Ah, you have obviously never been the plaintiff in one of these suites. While the initial decision on whether or not to sue may rest with the shareholder, the reality is that that is the ONLY decision he gets to make. After that, the lawyers decide everything while claiming to represent your best interests. Plus as in investing, past performance is no guarantee of future results; while as in any sales agreement, pitches not included in the actual contract verbiage are non-binding.
Oh, and I write that as someone who was a BoD member when our NPO had to initiate such action (successfully) against another corporation.
HP purchase a business for an amount that most people thought was too much money. They then mess up integrating the business into theirs. Next they realise that they have messed up and write off a huge chunk of the investment. To try to hide their culpability they say that it is not really their fault and start a smear campaign against anyone they could think of as a smokescreen claiming loudly and very publically that fraud was comitted (£5.5bn worth on a £180m t/o company!).
Now, they have struck a deal where, in exchange for never having to be held accountable for their own failings, everyone has to band together and sue whoever HP want.
If this goes down as it looks, then it may even give the HP guys protection from being sued for smearing the names of the Autonomy Board et al.
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