Woz on Microsoft: Whoa! They really changed things drastically. Whoa!

This was the week when HP finally realised that maybe slurping Autonomy a year ago wasn't such a good idea after all. Back in the days of Mad Leo Apotheker, HP agreed to fork out over $10bn for the Cambridge-based enterprise search and business intelligence software firm in a bid to transform itself into a software and …

[Anonymous Coward]

"Autonomy was audited by Deloitte every quarter...

...and the accountancy firm had never found any problems"

Brilliant. Because Deloitte have never said anything untrue for their own advantage.

For fairness, I'm not singling Deloitte out; PwC and all the others do it too. Just look at such accounting masterstrokes as the Facebook IPO.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: "Autonomy was audited by Deloitte every quarter...

The accountants didn't do anything wrong on the Facebook IPO. Audit has a very limited purpose, and if you don't understand what that is, you can get yourself into a lot of trouble. All an audit is supposed to do is broadly confirm that the published balance sheet is accurate. The Facebook IPO problem wasn't due to the balance sheet, just that some people hoped for short-term trading profits and others dreamed that Facebook would grow its profits insanely, and now worry that it'll only grow them massively. If it turns out they can only manage some growth, the share price will probably drop a bit more...

[Not That Andrew]

Re: "Autonomy was audited by Deloitte every quarter...

It wan't really the accountants at fault at the FaceBook IPO, it was the 10 investment banks and stockbrokers advising on the IPO who are to blame. If you remember the original plan was to launch at $40, but when someone suggested launching at $80, not one of them objected. Despite the fact that almost everyone not involved in the IPO thought $80 was ridiculous and even $40 a bit high. I'm surprised there isn't an SEC investigation about that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Autonomy was audited by Deloitte every quarter...

Agreed, but Deloitte did publish a rather positive report shortly before the IPO filing talking about how FB was worth a very large some of money and its positive impact on Europe's economy.

And guess who funded their "investigations" for that report?

Not saying Deloitte mis-represented FB in order to artifically inflate the IPO price and generate interest - there were a whole bunch of companies that did it.

[Not That Andrew]

Re: Deloitte & FaceBook

If I remember correctly Deloitte was one of the 10 separate companies advising on the FaceBook IPO, so you're right and I was wrong, the accountants are equally to blame for that fiasco.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Deloitte & FaceBook

"you're right and I was wrong"

You better be careful with words like that around here ;)

[amanfromMars 1]

Inscrutably Perfect

Chief exec Peter Chou said: "I think that these estimates are baseless and very, very wrong. It is a outrageous number, but I'm not going to comment anything on a specific number. I believe we have a very, very happy settlement and a good ending."

Beautiful Words carry Powerful EMotions in Great IntelAIgent Games ARG Play.

A little something for the Situation Room to embrace and exercise with Master Pilots in NEUKlearer Lead HyperRadioProActive IT.

A Wise Instruction to Reinforce Outrageous Statement Delivering Currently True Answers.

There a lot going on, out there, in CyberSpace and Offices of Cyber Security and Virtual Protection, El Reg. What do you know? Anything Earth-shattering and Revolutionary ...... Life Changing?

For that is what happens out there and IT's Real Spooky Territory and not at all Bad in SMARTR Insane Madnesses where Grand Imagination meets Great Ability to Float Present Opportunities and Future Certainties.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Inscrutably Perfect

What drugs are you on?

I want be sure to avoid them as they're making you write complete gibberish.

[Anonymous Coward]

Woz Spots Microsoft's Big Problem

'Whoa! They aren't even going in the same direction as everyone else.'

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Woz Spots Microsoft's Big Problem

Quite. There's going off in a radical new direction and coming up with something fantastic, and then there's going off in a random direction and finding out too late that you've stepped off a cliff.

[IJC]

Re: Woz Spots Microsoft's Big Problem

And right now it is too early to tell which way Microsoft is heading with Windows 8.

Microsoft can afford to spend a lot of money making sure they are successful in the tablet and phone markets over time. Just ask Sony how it feels to be at butt end of a long term Microsoft marketing campaign where the immediate goal is market dominance with a need for profitability only on the distant horizon.

Woz remembers what happened to Apple the first time they tried to fight Microsoft.

[Tim Elphick]

A good settlement

and a happy ending?