HP's Autonomy buyout is complete

Hewlett-Packard's $12 billionn (£7.8bn) buyout of British software firm Autonomy is now complete.

HP's former chief executive Leo Apotheker initiated the deal which is widely seen as part of a botched strategy move that ultimately led to falling sales and a dip in share prices.

Mr Apotheker was sacked by the company last month.

Meg Whitman, the former eBay boss who replaced Mr Apotheker, said shortly after taking over the reins of HP that the deal would still go ahead.

The Autonomy deal was the centrepiece of a massive shake-up announced by Mr Apotheker and his team in August. The move met with a lot of resistance on both sides of the Atlantic.

While City experts expressed concerns over the Cambridge-based firm falling into overseas hands, US market analysts were highly critical of the deal saying that the price is too high.

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