A San Francisco court heard that HP would sue Deloitte over its auditing of Autonomy's accounts before HP's takeover of the company. This was after the judge had rejected a deal by the company which had an $18 million fee arrangement and a $30 million success fee with two law firms which were originally acting for shareholders against HP. The firms, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd and Cotchett Pitre & McCarth, were to receive the money to sue Autonomy's founder and finance director instead of the company.

Potentially fatal

The judge said the lawyer fee arrangement was 'potentially fatal' to getting approval for a settlement which would protect HP whilst targeting former Autonomy managers for investor claims over the $8.8 billion loss relating to the Autonomy purchase, the judge said. At the case, Marc Wolinsky of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz said HP would go after  Deloitte and would also file lawsuits in California. Deloittes said the case was without merit as the company was not engaged to provide due diligence for the takeover.