HP CEO Leo Apotheker was ‘dead man walking’ as board split over autonomy

Hewlett-Packard Co.’s board, riven with conflict, faced a “poisonous internal environment” on the eve of its announcement to acquire British software firm Autonomy.

A simmering dispute between executives burst into the open just as HP’s board wavered over whether to proceed with the $11-billion transaction, then-Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker said on the second day of his evidence in the civil case against Autonomy founder Mike Lynch.

HP is suing Lynch over claims he regularly inflated his company’s sales in an attempt to beat quarterly stock market expectations. The computing giant argues it was conned into overpaying for the British software firm and had to take a $8.8 billion writedown of the business just a year later.