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HP CEO Léo Apotheker didn't bother reading Autonomy deal due diligence

Apotheker relied on HP's 'traffic light' system to highlight problems - but ignored CFO who opposed the deal

After admitting yesterday that he hadn't bothered reading Autonomy's accounts, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Léo Apotheker went on to admit that he hadn't read-up on the due diligence, either.

Furthermore, Apotheker had faced strong opposition to the deal from HP's own chief financial officer Cathie Lesjak - who had been interim CEO before Apotheker's appointment - and, in any case, the due diligence had been rushed so that HP's $11bn deal to buy Autonomy could be announced on a particular day, it was claimed in court yesterday.

Lesjak had pleaded with HP chairman Ray Lane to stop the deal going ahead, referring in an email to a lack of "financial discipline", while Apotheker, according to internal HP documents, had sought to cut Lesjak out of the loop.

The internal HP politicking over HP's disastrous $11bn acquisition of Autonomy - announced on 18th August 2011 and completed by November - was revealed in court yesterday, and covered by The Register's Gareth Corfield, who has been covering the court case from the High Court in London this week.

Apotheker claimed that, rather than reading any due diligence reports directly, he relied upon the judgement of specialists employed by HP.

"The system we had in place relied on very professional people, accountants, chartered accountants in fact, to make sure things were in order. It wasn't up to me to read them - by the way, I would have been incapable of reading all the material. I relied on the system in place, the traffic light system, if someone thought there was something," he said.

Under questioning, he added: "The report was pretty clear… nothing came up, and there was no need to read the report," because he wasn't an accountant and "I would not have been able to add any value."

Due diligence, he finally admitted, was left to others.

Apotheker had been CEO of software giant SAP from 2008 until 2010, when SAP's board decided against renewing his contract, and he was subsequently snapped up by HP.

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HP CEO Léo Apotheker didn't bother reading Autonomy deal due diligence

Apotheker relied on HP's 'traffic light' system to highlight problems - but ignored CFO who opposed the deal

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