Hewlett-Packard Co. said on Tuesday it had been duped into overpaying for one of its largest acquisitions, contributing to an $8.8 billion write-down and a huge quarterly loss.

The technology giant said that an internalinvestigation had revealed 'serious accounting improprieties' and 'outright misrepresentations' in connection with U.K. software maker Autonomy, which H-P acquired for $11.1 billion in October 2011.

'There appears to have been a willful sustained effort' to inflate Autonomy's revenue and profitability, said Chief Executive Meg Whitman. 'This was designed to be hidden.'

Michael Lynch, Autonomy's founder and former CEO, fired back hours later, denying improper accounting and accusing H-P of trying to hide its mismanagement. 'We completely reject the allegations,' said Mr. Lynch, who left H-P earlier this year. 'As soon as there is some flesh put on the bones we will show they are not true.'

H-P said Tuesday it alerted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.K. Serious Fraud Office and requested that they open investigations. The SEC and Federal Bureau of Investigation are launching inquiries, according to people familiar with the probes.

The accounting-fraud claim adds to a string of recent setbacks and controversies for Palo Alto, Calif.-based H-P, whose board faced criticism over its handling of the departures of its last two chief executives. Mark Hurd resigned in 2010 after he acknowledged having a personal relationship with a company contractor. His successor, Leo Apotheker, who spearheaded the Autonomy purchase, was forced out in 2011 and replaced by Ms. Whitman.

H-P General Counsel John Schultz said the internalinvestigation into the Autonomy deal began in May when he told Ms. Whitman he had just spoken with a seniorexecutive in the Autonomy software business, who had alleged that executives at Autonomy had been cooking the books before the acquisition. The identity of that seniorexecutive couldn't be determined.

A spokesman for Autonomy's accounting firm, Deloitte LLP, said Tuesday: 'Deloitte UK categorically denies that it had any knowledge of any accounting improprieties or any misrepresentations in Autonomy's financial statements, or that it was complicit in any accounting improprieties or misrepresentations.'

Mr. Lynch, the former Autonomy CEO, said H-P is 'completely and utterly wrong.' He said of Autonomy: 'It is a business we spent 10 years building. It was a world leader. It was destroyed in less than a year by the petty infighting at H-P.'

The accounting-fraud allegations punctuated another grim set of financial results for H-P, one of the world's largest sellers of personal computers, printers and other technology products and services. In recent years, it has been hurt by executive turnover, cost cuts, mounting debt and slowing demand for some products.

H-P said Tuesday it swung to a $6.9 billion loss for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Oct. 31, while revenue fell 7% from a year earlier. The charge for writing down Autonomy totaled $8.8 billion, of which more than $5 billion is related to the accounting issues, with the balance relatedpartly to the unit's performance. Revenue fell across H-P's PC, printer, services, and server and networking divisions.

It was the technology giant's fifth straight quarter of big declines, a trend Ms. Whitman said is likely to continue.

H-P's stock, which was already trading near a 10-year low, ended 4 p.m. trading at $11.71, down $1.59, or 12%, on the New York Stock Exchange.

When the deal was announced in August 2011, Autonomy was Britain's biggest software company and second-largest in Europe, after Germany's SAP AG. Its customers include intelligence agencies, big corporations, banks and law firms. H-P said then that Autonomy was key to its transformation into a higher-margin seller of software.

BEN WORTHEN

• investigation [in,vesti´geiʃən]   n.调查(研究)   (初中英语单词)
• connection [kə´nekʃən]   n.联系；关系；联运   (初中英语单词)
• executive [ig´zekjutiv]   a.行政的 n.行政官   (初中英语单词)
• federal [´fedərəl]   a.联邦的，联邦制的   (初中英语单词)
• bureau [´bjuərəu]   n.局；编辑部；事务所   (初中英语单词)
• criticism [´kritisizəm]   n.批评；评论(文)   (初中英语单词)
• counsel [´kaunsəl]   n.商议；劝告；律师   (初中英语单词)
• spoken [´spəukən]   speak的过去分词   (初中英语单词)
• financial [fi´nænʃəl]   a.金融的，财政的   (初中英语单词)
• charge [tʃɑ:dʒ]   v.收费；冲锋 n.费用   (初中英语单词)
• writing [´raitiŋ]   n.书写；写作；书法   (初中英语单词)
• partly [´pɑ:tli]   ad.部分地；不完全地   (初中英语单词)
• performance [pə´fɔ:məns]   n.履行；行为；工作   (初中英语单词)
• intelligence [in´telidʒəns]   n.智力；消息   (初中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən]   num.万亿   (高中英语单词)
• internal [in´tə:nl]   a.内部的；国内的   (高中英语单词)
• revenue [´revinju:]   n.税收；收入   (高中英语单词)
• founder [´faundə]   n.奠基者 v.陷落   (高中英语单词)
• reject [ri´dʒekt]   vt.拒绝；抵制；否决   (高中英语单词)
• commission [kə´miʃən]   n.委任(状) vt.委任   (高中英语单词)
• relationship [ri´leiʃənʃip]   n.关系；联系；亲属关系   (高中英语单词)
• successor [sək´sesə]   n.继承人，接班人   (高中英语单词)
• senior [´si:niə]   a.年长的 n.前辈   (高中英语单词)
• related [ri´leitid]   a.叙述的；有联系的   (高中英语单词)
• seller [´selə]   n.销售者；行销货   (高中英语单词)
• trying [´traiiŋ]   a.难堪的；费劲的   (英语四级单词)
• contractor [kən´træktə]   n.订约人；收缩物   (英语四级单词)
• printer [´printə]   n.印刷者；排字工人   (英语四级单词)
• transformation [,trænsfə´meiʃən]   n.转化；转变；改造   (英语四级单词)
• willful [´wilfəl]   a.任性的，固执的   (英语六级单词)
• inflate [in´fleit]   v.使膨胀；使得意   (英语六级单词)
• improper [im´prɔpə]   a.不恰当的；不正确的   (英语六级单词)
• acquisition [,ækwi´ziʃən]   n.获得；获得物   (英语六级单词)
• identity [ai´dentiti]   n.身份；同一性；一致   (英语六级单词)
• spokesman [´spəuksmən]   n.发言人   (英语六级单词)
• fiscal [´fiskəl]   a.财政的   (英语六级单词)
• august [ɔ:´gʌst]   a.尊严的；威严的   (英语六级单词)