Techmeme: HP requests fraud investigation into Autonomy claims (Barb Darrow/GigaOM)

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November 20, 2012, 9:15 PM

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Jonathan Weil / Bloomberg:

Hewlett-Packard's Explanation Just Makes No Sense — Here's the problem with Hewlett- Packard Co.'s explanation today for why it took an $8.8 billion writedown related to its purchase of Autonomy Corp.: The numbers don't make sense. — HP said “more than $5 billion” of the writedown …

More: PC Magazine, Bloomberg, The Daily Beast, Bloomberg, Wired, Beyond Search and The Tech Report

Tweets: @karaswisher and @davidjshipley

Ben Worthen / Wall Street Journal:

H-P Blames $8.8 Billion Charge on Bad Deal — Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ -11.95% surprised investors Tuesday when it claimed it had been duped into overpaying for one of its largest acquisitions, a U.K. software maker, that will result in an $8.8 billion charge.

More: Wired, DealBook, Deal Journal, Softpedia News, Dealbreaker, Digits, SlashGear, Betabeat, Business Insider and Mashable!. Tweets: @spencerchen

Barb Darrow / GigaOM:

HP requests fraud investigation into Autonomy claims — Updated: Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman said “outright misrepresentations” about the state of Autonomy's financial health led to HP overpaying for that company last year and Whitman is recommending civil and criminal investigations into that issue.

More: SiliconANGLE, HP, ZDNet, Telegraph, Forbes, Deal Journal, Deal Journal, HotHardware.com News, Real Story Group Recent …, Neowin, SlashGear, Business Insider and TechPinions. Tweets: @nero

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Autonomy Founder Mike Lynch Rejects HP Charges, Alleges Mismanagement — I just got off the phone with Mike Lynch, the founding CEO of Autonomy. As you might expect, he has a different view of events surrounding the allegations leveled by Hewlett-Packard today concerning Autonomy's role in an $8.8 billion write-down.

More: Betabeat and DealBook

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

HP's CFO Tried To Stop The Company From Spending $11 Billion On Autonomy — Now that HP's $11.1 billion purchase of Autonomy is completely blowing up in its face, it's time to look back at how it could have happened in the first place. — Wasn't anyone warning HP's board that it might be buying a lousy company?

More: CNET, Fortune and CNNMoney.com

Scott Austin / Digits:

Leo Apotheker: Due Diligence of Autonomy Was Meticulous

More: Tech Trader Daily, Business Insider, Dow Jones Newswires, TechSpot, VentureBeat, Gizmodo and BGR

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

What Exactly Happened at Autonomy?

More: CNBC, PandoDaily, Mercury News, Forbes, Reuters, Business Insider, Quartz, Mashable!, Deal Journal and SiliconANGLE

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

HP Beats Street Amid Sales Declines, Takes $8.8 Billion Charge

Steven Russolillo / MarketBeat:

H-P Shares Tumble to 10-Year Lows; Analysts Throw in the Towel

More: Bloomberg and TechCrunch

Nielsen Wire:

U.S. Kids Continue to Look Forward to “iHoliday” — When it comes to devices, kids' holiday wish lists are simple this year. The most-wanted gifts are predominantly from one company—Apple. According to a recent Nielsen study, Apple's popularity leading up to the holiday season continues …

More: Los Angeles Times, MacRumors, Reuters, TUAW, 9to5Mac, Phones Review, Forbes, Kotaku, Macgasm, App Advice, SlashGear, Pocketnow, Gotta Be Mobile, Mac Weekend, GamesIndustry International, Polygon, Business Insider and The Next Web

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

New York is beaten by Tel Aviv, LA and Seattle in a new global ranking of the top 20 startup ecosystems — A new report released today by Startup Genome ranks the world's top 20 startup ecosystems. While there's no surprise what comes out on top, the overall list makes for some interesting reading.

More: VentureBeat, VatorNews, Xconomy, Telefonica Digital Hub, TechCrunch, CNET, BostInno, silicontap.com and Reuters

Declan McCullagh / CNET:

Leahy scuttles his warrantless e-mail surveillance bill — After public criticism of proposal that lets government agencies warrantlessly access Americans' e-mail, Sen. Patrick Leahy says he will “not support” such an idea at next week's vote. — Sen. Patrick Leahy has abandoned …

More: The Technology Chronicles, The Hill, The Next Web, CNET, Gizmodo, Wired, The Daily Caller, The Verge, Techdirt, Forbes, Patrick Leahy, PC World, TechSpot, WebProNews, “The Lid” and DailyTech

Tweets: @declanm and @senatorleahy

Kim Zetter / Wired:

Hacker Found Guilty of Breaching AT&T Site to Obtain iPad Customer Data — A hacker charged with federal crimes for obtaining the personal data of more than 100,000 iPad owners from AT&T's website was found guilty on Tuesday. — Andrew Auernheimer, 26, of Fayetteville, Arkansas …

More: CNET, Computerworld, SiliconANGLE, Betabeat and TechNewsDaily.com

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

New York City replaces 250 public pay phones with iPad-like screens — In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the humble phone booth took on renewed importance as cut-off New Yorkers used pay phones to connect with each other in an emergency. Now, this quaint but reliable form of public technology is getting a major facelift.

More: PhoneArena, Engadget, ABCNEWS, Marketing Pilgrim and Betabeat. Thanks:@jeffjohnroberts

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Reed Hastings on Microsoft: Watch Windows 8, Not Surface — After more than five years on Microsoft's board of directors, Reed Hastings is stepping down at the end of the month. And if you think the Netflix CEO is going to give you insider dish on what's been going on at Redmond, you're going to be disappointed.

More: CNET, GeekWire and InfoWorld

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:

US patent chief to software patent critics: “Give it a rest already” — David Kappos speaks at the Center for American progress in 2010. — Center for American Progress — David Kappos, the head of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, offered a strong defense of software patents …

More: digitaltrends.com, Techdirt and NYT Bits

Eliza Kern / GigaOM:

Surprise! Twitter study shows that promoted tweets result in sales — Twitter has commissioned a new study Tuesday, initially reported by CNBC, showing that (not surprisingly) promoted tweets and Twitter advertising have resulted in increased sales to consumers and a greater awareness of brands when considering a purchase.

More: SiliconBeat, Compete Pulse, Media Money …, Twitter Advertising, Marketing Pilgrim, WebProNews and SocialTimes

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Twitter Offers A Total Of $1M In Free Credits To 10,000 New Advertisers For Small Business Saturday

More: Twitter Advertising, VatorNews, Marketing Land and Mashable!

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Lenovo website reveals ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch ultrabook for Windows 8 — Lenovo is set to expand its growing lineup of Windows 8 devices with a revision of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon tailored for Microsoft's new OS. According to a page on the company's website, which has been posted ahead …

More: SlashGear and Engadget

Mat Smith / Engadget:

Skype version 3.0 arrives on Android devices: Microsoft login, refreshed tablet UI (hands-on) — Arriving just after its debut on Windows Phone 8, Skype's updated its Android app, with a focus on improving the tablet experience. Surely thanks to improved Google tablet sales …

More: The Big Blog, Android Community, SlashGear, PC Magazine, CNET, MobileSyrup.com, GigaOM and The Next Web

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

The Unlocked Galaxy S III Mini Quietly Goes On Sale At Amazon — The Galaxy S Mini didn't make a splash hitting U.S. shelves, but the teacup version of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III has in fact arrived stateside. — Right now, we've noticed that Amazon is selling the handset for 409.95 unlocked.

More: Examiner, PhoneArena, CNET, GadgeTell, Ars Technica, PC Magazine, TechnoBuffalo and Gotta Be Mobile

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Promises To Bring December Back To Android 4.2 “Soon” — Google says that it will soon bring December back to Android 4.2. Google's latest version of its mobile operating system shipped with a rather embarrassing oversight: December is missing from the date picker in the People app …

More: Google+, Macgasm, BetaNews, Ars Technica, Pocketnow, Examiner and TechnoBuffalo

Tomio Geron / Forbes:

Ben Parr, Tracks.by Cofounders Aim To ‘Dominate’ Venture Capital With Celebrity Ties — Seed funds, also known as micro-VC funds, have grown in recent years as startups need less funding to get off the ground. They've become a popular way for startups to build an initial product and get started before raising a larger venture round.

More: VentureBeat. Tweets: @spencerchen

Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:

Zynga Appoints Tim LeTourneau as Chief Creative Officer — As fast as Zynga has lost high-level employees, the FarmVille maker has been busy cultivating new ones to fill in the gaps. — Today, AllThingsD has learned of another appointment: Zynga has promoted Tim LeTourneau to the position …

Paul Sloan / CNET:

Marc Andreessen sells $54.1M in Facebook stock to pay Uncle Sam — The Facebook board member is bullish on Facebook — but he has a whopping tax bill. — If you think your tax bill was bad, try being Marc Andreessen. — The venture capitalist and Facebook board member disclosed today …

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Firefox 17 Launches With New Social API, Preview Of Facebook Messenger Integration — Mozilla just launched the latest stable version of Firefox. This release introduces Firefox's new Social API with a preview of the first social integration with Facebook Messenger for Firefox.

More: The Register, Engadget, CNET, Ars Technica, The Mozilla Blog, BetaNews, Pocketables, The Next Web, Geek.com, The Next Web and AllFacebook

Mari Saito / Reuters:

HTC “happy” with Apple settlement, slams media estimates — (Reuters) - Taiwan's HTC Corp is happy with its patent settlement with Apple Inc, but regards media reports on details of the licensing agreement as “outrageous”, chief executive Peter Chou told reporters on Tuesday.

More: Mashable!, The Register, Android Phone Fans, CNET, TechCrunch, Macgasm, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, Pocketnow, Forbes, Droid Life, AndroidGuys, iDownloadBlog.com, IntoMobile, HotHardware.com News, Android Community, TechnoBuffalo and AllThingsD

John Cook / GeekWire:

Isilon vets land $24.5M series A for stealthy data storage startup Qumulo — When we first stumbled on stealthy Qumulo a few months ago, the former Isilon engineers leading the charge at the data storage startup didn't want to disclose what they were building.

More: VentureBeat, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and GigaOM

Sue Marek / FierceWireless:

T-Mobile expands 1900 MHz HSPA+ service to 10 more markets — T-Mobile USA launched HSPA+ service in its 1900 MHz spectrum in 10 additional markets including Miami; Phoenix; San Francisco; Mesa and Tucson, Ariz.; Modesto, Oakland, San Jose and Stockton, Calif.; and Fort Lauderdale …

More: Examiner, T-Mobile Issues …, Fierce Broadband Wireless, Mac Weekend, Life On My Mobile, 9to5Mac, SlashGear, PhoneNews.com and GigaOM

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