London - Hewlett-Packard and attorneys representing shareholders have agreed to settle litigation over its troubled $11.1bn acquisition of British software company Autonomy, a source says.
Under the terms of the settlement, involving three lawsuits, the attorneys for the shareholders have agreed to drop all claims against HP's current and former executives, including CEO Meg Whitman, board members and advisers to the company, the source said.
The exception to that will be former officials at Autonomy.
As part of the agreement, the shareholders' attorneys will assist HP in pursuing claims against Autonomy's co-founder and former CEO Michael Lynch, its former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain, and potentially others related to Autonomy.
The precise nature of such claims and when HP might file them could not be learned.
The settlement, which followed mediation, is expected to be announced as soon as Monday.
HP took an $8.8bn impairment charge in November 2012 for its purchase of Autonomy only just over a year earlier, with more than $5bn of that linked to what HP said at the time were "serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures."