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Accounting expert told judge Autonomy was wrong not to disclose hardware sales

I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

El Reg says they're going to write an article on his evidence next. Their current piece suggests that he was given some possible scenarios and said how he'd recommend doing the accounts in those cases. And that was his evidence.

Accounting at this level isn't just about making things add up. It's also about making the accounts represent the current state of the company as accurately as possible. But there can often be legitimate differences in how that should be done - and accountants have to take a view on how to do that. One of the things that happens in the audit process is that the auditors challenge management on how they've done this - and then they either have to justify it, or make changes.

The problem for HPE's case is that if both ways of doing things are legally acceptable, then they've no case for fraud - so long as Autonomy weren't lying in the due dilligence process.

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