Hewlett-Packard's spectacular accusation Tuesday that it was fooled concerning the value of a British software producer it obtained a year ago is just the newest in a string of problems that the Silicon Valley image must attempt to set behind it quickly, experts said.

"In order to help keep the brand from further discoloration, they have to first of all not make any longer mistakes," said expert Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies. "Given the number of problems that HP has produced in the past several years, this is just one more fat that's pulling the boat down."

Despite the $8.8 million fourth-quarter write-down that was largely due to the supposed accounting fraud at Cheap Technomarine Watches Autonomy Corp., HP Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman still has a powerful selection of products and business companies that are generating billions in revenue, said specialist Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies of Campbell.

"It may cost more people's jobs and they may need certainly to streamline issues, but HP is still a household model, it is still got tremendous resources and it is still highly prized at the organization level from an understanding of products and services," Bajarin said. "They have to deal with the issues of the past, but they've got to easily get past it so they may continue what Meg calls this multiyear turnaround."

HP's share price plunged nearly 12 percent to shut at $11.71 per share after revealing that its already controversial $10.3 billion purchase of business software agency Autonomy was tainted. Through the day, stocks dropped up to 14 per cent, taking HP to its lowest price in ten years. So far this year, the share SWiss Replica Burberry price has decreased by about 48 percent.

Latest turmoil

"HP is incredibly disappointed to get that some former members of Autonomy's management group used sales improprieties, misrepresentations and disclosure disappointments to fill the main economic metrics of the business, prior to Autonomy's exchange by HP," HP said in a released with its fourth-quarter profits report.

HP has previously endured management turmoil and problems in its personal-computer, printer and technology-services organizations. Former Chief Executive Officer LAo Apotheker decided to buy Autonomy to shift far from equipment and develop in application for organizations.

Apotheker left in 2011 after less than a year on the job after recurring strategy shifts and estimate cuts.

More than $5 billion of the total $8.8 billion charge is a result of sales procedures at Autonomy that were shared by way of a senior executive there after president Mike Lynch left, HP said. Lynch instructed the Wall Street Journal that HP "ambushed" him with the suggestions, which he named "utterly wrong, and we refuse them completely."

HP said it has referred the matter to U.S. and Uk securities regulators, and Whitman said the company will try to regain a few of the damage through civil litigation.

Key people gone

"The board depended on audited financials - audited by Deloitte - perhaps not company X sales agency but Deloitte," Whitman said within a conference call with investors. "The CEO at the time and the top of strategy who led this offer are both gone - LAo Apotheker and Shane Robison."

Jamie Harley, a spokesperson for Deloitte, declined to review. Robison didn't reunite a call seeking comment.

Apotheker, who got the article after former CEO Mark Hurd was ousted, tried to drive HP far from electronics and more toward business computer software. Under his watch, HP decided to get Autonomy, the United Kingdom's second-largest software producer, to increase in cloud research and increase software that searches a broad array of data, including e-mails, music, videos and posts on social networks such as Facebook.

Apotheker said Tuesday he was "stunned and disappointed" by the alleged improprieties.

"The homework process was thoughtful and complete, and involved two of the world's largest and most respected auditing organizations working on behalf of HP," Apotheker said. "According to HP, the accounting problems it found predate its order of Autonomy. Therefore, it's evident that Autonomy's claimed sales misrepresentations fooled several people over time - not just HP's authority group, auditors and directors."

'Active concealment'

Autonomy misrepresented its gross profit margin and also incorrectly designed or miscategorized a lot more than $200 million in income over a two-year period beginning in '09, explained John Schultz, Hewlett-Packard's general counsel. As computer software income autonomy was reselling Dell computers and checking those income, he explained. Some sales were also designed through resellers.

"You have active concealment," Schultz said. These issues were not "obviously caught by deloitte during the time. It had been difficult, or even impossible for HP to find them."

Also Tuesday, Hewlett-Packard estimate financial first-quarter gain that missed analysts' estimates amid a consistent downturn in personal-computer sales.

Earnings excluding some goods is likely to be 68 to 71 cents per share for the time, which leads to January, Hewlett-Packard said. Authorities typically had projected gain of 85 cents per share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Whitman is paring product lines and cutting staff to really make the supplier of PCs, models and data center gear more aggressive. The organization, after a hotbed of invention and the world's biggest PC producer, has experienced declining income and has been late to build up portable and cloud-computing products.

Horror story?

Tuesday's news, which uses a door of CEOs, technique shifts and a spying scandal regarding journalists, contributes to what's turn into a "corporate horror story," Bajarin said.

"There is been so much bad news it is a surprise the organization continues to be considered as powerful a brand and as highly revered in corporate and consumer markets. But Rolex Replica Watches that claims a lot to the legacy of (William) Hewlett and (David) Packard," he said, referring to their revered founders.

The organization still retains strong supply and distribution organizations, Kay said.

What Whitman has to do is "refine products, make sure it is obvious what HP is Longines Replica Watch and what HP isn't, then refine the marketing communication to generally meet that and deliver on the brand guarantees consistently," he said.

Benny Evangelista is really a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Amy Thomson and Aaron Ricadela are Bloomberg writers. E-mail: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com, aricadela@bloomberg.net, athomson6@bloomberg.net