Three Major Hurdles in Financial Due Diligence for Computer Software Companies

When Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced last fall that it was taking an $8.8 billion write-off (80 percent of the purchase price) on its acquisition of software company Autonomy Corporation (Autonomy), it made headlines. The write-off also drew renewed attention to some of the accounting issues that can arise when acquiring a company in the software industry.

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