HP Discover 2012: All you need to know

HP is committed to Autonomy

Despite paying over the odds for Cambridge-based analytics specialist Autonomy, HP is confident the software will ultimately provide a valuable stream of revenue.

"We have an essential collection of tools in our performance software suite...We remain 100 per cent committed to Autonomy's industry leading technologies and its employees. We are really excited about the innovations that are in the pipeline," Whitman told delegates at Discover 2012.

The saga is likely to drag on in the courts for year and HP does expect short-term repercussions from the negative publicity.

"I would be nave to think that there won't be some ramifications regarding customers who were on the fence. I certainly think our competitors are going to use [this situation] to their advantage," Valerie Logan, VP of information management and analytics at HP, told IT Pro.

"[Still] customers who were using HP and Autonomy before [the investigation] are deeply committed to it. The banking sector, for example, is heavily dependent on Autonomy to drive a lot of regulatory reporting."

Business isn't as bad it seems

HP has seen tens of billions wiped off its value in the past couple of years as PC sales have been cannibalised by the rise of tablets and smartphones.

The firm's Q4 financials weren't positive either triggering shares to tumble to a nine-year low. However, HP is still the 10th largest firm in the US and isn't struggling like other high-profile tech firms, such as Nokia, Sharp, Sony and Panasonic.

"Cash flow is the lifeblood of business. Our cash flow is more than some great companies like Coca Cola, Disney, FedEx, McDonalds and Visa. And we reduced our net debt by $5.6b in the last year," Whitman said.