HP settles lawsuits over $11.1 billion deal for British software company

(Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co and attorneys representing shareholders confirmed on Monday they had agreed to settle litigation over the $11.1 billion acquisition of British software company Autonomy Corp.

Reuters exclusively reported news of the settlement on Friday.

Under the terms of the settlement, all claims against HP's current and former directors, officers and advisers, other than legacy Autonomy officials and advisers, will be dropped, the company said in a statement.

Plaintiffs and their counsel at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP will help HP bring claims against former Autonomy CEO Michael Lynch, Shushovan Hussain, its former finance chief and potentially others, HP added.

HP took an $8.8 billion impairment charge in November 2012 for its purchase of Autonomy only just over a year earlier, with more than $5 billion of that linked to what HP said at the time were "serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures."

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in Bangalore; Editing by Ken Wills)

[Image via Agence France-Presse]