HP Scores 9th Cir. Win in Challenge to Stock in 401(k) Plan

Hewlett-Packard Co. is the latest major company to defeat a lawsuit by workers who say they lost out on retirement savings by investing in company stock.

The workers failed to show that HP executives took steps to conceal a corporate fraud related to the company’s controversial acquisition of British software maker Autonomy Corp., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said Jan. 9. The workers also failed to identify a good alternative action HP executives could have taken to protect the company’s 401(k) plan when HP stock fell 12 percent in the wake of the acquisition, the Ninth ...