Are we all forgetting the real issue????
It is fascinating to read about the case.
I have no special knowledge but I was in the IT industry with a lot of contacts at the time of the acquisition.
HP bought Autonomy. It was HP's responsibility to make sure they really understood what they bought. I had a friend at IBM who was on the team who spent more than 6 months assessing the option to buy Sun. The due diligence was extreme. When the negotiations got tough (when Oracle countered) the due diligence team were relied upon to ensure that IBM knew how much they wanted to pay.
A huge discussion point in the industry at the time of the acquisition was "Does Autonomy software actually work?" The claims they made for their special technology were extraordinary. There were a number of respected people who truly understood the nature of database, big data and search who doubted that Autonomy could actually achieve what they said.
Conclusion - This was always going to end in tears.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
