Hewlett-Packard Co.'s former Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker, who has drawn criticism for the troubled acquisition of Autonomy Corp., said the company's board — led by Chairman Ray Lane — shares responsibility for the deal.
"No single CEO is ever able to make a decision on a major acquisition in isolation, particularly at a company as large as HP — and certainly not without the full support of the chairman of the board," Apotheker said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. "The HP board, led by its chairman, met many times to review the acquisition and unanimously supported the deal, as well as the underlying strategic objective to bolster HP's market presence in enterprise data."
The statement by Apotheker — who was ousted by the board as CEO in September 2011 after less than a year on the job — is an attempt to draw attention to others involved when Hewlett- Packard agreed to buy Autonomy for $10.3 billion last year. The Palo Alto, California-based computer maker took an $8.8 billion write-down on the deal last month. More than $5 billion of the charge was due to "serious accounting improprieties" at Autonomy, Hewlett-Packard said.
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