HP: Autonomy exaggerated profit by more than five times

Tech giant also claims software firm's sales turned out to be less than half what was originally stated

HP has claimed Autonomy exaggerated its profits by more than five times before it was acquired, and that the British firm's sales were actually less than half what it had claimed, according to reports.

Back in 2010, Autonomy said its profits after tax for the year stood at £105.7m, but according to HP's restated figures recently filed with Companies House, the figure was actually only £19.6m – more than five times smaller than what Autonomy had said.

It was a similar picture with sales: Autonomy reported annual revenue of £175.6m, 54 per cent higher than the figure HP came to – £81.3m.

HP first accused Autonomy of misleading it over its finances back in 2012 to inflate its sale price before being acquired in the prior year. As a result HP suffered a writedown of $8.8bn (£5.5bn).

Since the controversial acquisition, the duo has been locked in a war of words. Last month, HP said it needed more time to chew over what legal action it is going to take regarding the saga and put back its decision to later this month.