This sounds scarily like the $8 billion write-off that tainted HP's Q3 balance sheet, but the source of the company's woes is different this time. It's had to take a nearly $9 billion writedown on the value of one of its biggest assets, the British software company Autonomy, following the discovery of serious accounting "improprieties." These concerns cast major doubt over the $10 billion sum that HP coughed up to purchase Autonomy last year, and have a direct impact on both these Q4 earnings and the reported earnings for 2012. Nevertheless, fourth-quarter net revenue still hit $30 billion, which is a 7
