infoTECH Feature

April 07, 2014

HP Settles Lawsuit from its Own Shareholders

As of late, it seems that HP doesn't quite have the love affair with personal computers that it used to have back in the late 90s and early years of the new millennium. Due to a strong growth in the DIY PC crowd and a thunderous rise in the use of mobile technology, however, HP would be understandably at risk of being left behind if it didn't start pursuing greener pastures.

This didn't sit very well with some shareholders, though, who felt that they had been defrauded by the leadership of the company, who decided to change HP's business model. Hewlett-Packard (News - Alert) Co. isn't a stranger to lawsuits, though. Last year, shareholders sued chief executives of HP over a deal that they made with a British software firm called Autonomy. Again, the lawsuit was about an alleged fraud.

This didn't inspire HP to say “deal with it,” though. As a result of the present lawsuit, the company has agreed to deposit $57 million in an interest-bearing escrow account payable to the plaintiffs. This all happened after an announcement by former executive Leo Apotheker, who said that the company will shift its focus to business-oriented offers – a logical step for a company trying to adapt to the post-PC era, and a step that companies like Microsoft (News - Alert) have already seen plenty of success with (we're looking at you, Windows Azure).

The class-action lawsuit included the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, the LIUNA National Pension Fund, the LIUNA Staff & Affiliates Pension Fund, Union Asset Management Holding AG, and the Laborers' Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada.

Hopefully, HP will be able to put this behind them and move on to becoming a successful innovator of networking products for businesses around the world, just as it plans to do.


Edited by Rory J. Thompson
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