HP barely squeaked by analyst expectations in its fourth quarter earnings, but the bigger news today is that the company was forced to take a $8.8 billion charge over accounting irregularities with its enterprise software outfit Autonomy.

Yes, that’s after HP paid $10.3 billion for UK-based Autonomy last year, and it’s on top of the $8 billion goodwill write off the company announced back in August. Altogether, HP announced almost $17 billion worth of charges this year over companies purchased by past CEOs.

From the release:

The majority of this impairment charge is linked to serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations at Autonomy Corporation plc that occurred prior to HP’s acquisition of Autonomy and the associated impact of those improprieties, failures and misrepresentations on the expected future financial performance of the Autonomy business over the long-term. The balance of the impairment charge is linked to the recent trading value of HP stock. There will be no cash impact associated with the impairment charge.

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Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

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