Please note: We now have a mechanism to provide you with email alerts of posts. To receive email notifications of posts, simply click here. http://www.thevaluealliance.com/bloxham_voice_email_alerts.htm.

Although most board members don’t suffer much personally if sued, no one wants the kind of publicity HP’s board is experiencing related to its Autonomy purchase. But now taxpayers are on the hook to sort this all out.

Here’s my recent article on red flags at HP. It provides a short roadmap for boards and investors that don’t want to burn through cash. And provides the inside scoop, for those who don’t know it, into phraseology that means more than one might suspect.

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/30/hp-meg-whitman-autonomy-2/

Clearly, long term holders would benefit from some transparency into the company’s process as part of signing off on deals.

In due diligence, smart boards don’t rely just on multiple auditors or investment bankers. They use internal resources or hire outside parties to look behind the numbers and determine what’s really going on.

One CFO who recently went through an acquisition expressed it as “connecting the numbers to the business,” explaining their use of outsiders to help them get an understanding of what was really happening with the numbers, in order to arrive at a fair valuation. In contrast, the investment banks they hired just took the numbers “as is”. As a result, their valuation analyses didn’t provide much value. (Not to mention the bias related to the lack of independence/inherent conflicts of interest.) And although they hired auditors as well, they only hired them to do what they do best. They did not use them to analyse what was going on behind the surface to arrive at a solid valuation.

Certainly outside reports from analysts, short sellers and the press — and information on the web should be de rigueur reading material for the board of any company seeking to acquire another firm.

The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance http://www.thevaluealliance.com/
Copyright 2012 The Value Alliance Company. All rights reserved.