HP plans to lay off a bunch of Autonomy employees, according to several news reports.
Up to 200 Autonomy employees are bracing themselves for a pink slip, writes Jon Rees at the U.K. publication, the Daily Mail.
The actual number of cuts could be closer to 70, reports Arik Hesseldahl from AllThingsD, naming sources close to the company. These 70 will be mostly salespeople who were hired before HP bought Autonomy.
The layoffs were reportedly in the works before HP announced an $8.8 billion writedown of Autonomy, Hesseldahl reports.
HP claimed that $5 billion of that writedown was due to fraud in Autonomy's books. Autonomy's founder and former CEO, Mike Lynch, has adamantly denied any wrongdoing.
Word of Autonomy-specific layoffs shouldn't be surprising. In addition to the massive write-down on the value of Autonomy, HP has been involved in a multi-year effort to shed 29,000 jobs from its payroll by the end HP's 2014 fiscal year.
HP declined comment.
