THE ACCUSATION: Hewlett-Packard Co. says executives at a British software company it bought last year for $9.7 billion, Autonomy, padded the company's financial results using various accounting tricks.

THE COST: HP took an $8.8 billion writedown for the $9.7 billion acquisition. More than $5 billion of the writedown was due to the accounting shenanigans, HP said.

THE REBUTTAL: Mike Lynch, the founder and former CEO of Autonomy, denied the allegations and said it is sad to see how HP has mismanaged the company after the acquisition.