I'm slightly confused, and forgive my ignorance: how do you channel stuff software? I mean, granted this is 2009 - 2011, but even back then were Autonomy really selling software as a physically packaged good, or is there some way that virtual goods can be channel stuffed? (E.g., selling a shedload of license keys to resellers, many of which remain unsold to end users? Would that be something that even applied to the software Autonomy made?)
EDIT: Similarly, for roundtripping, doesn't there need to be another company or companies involved? Doesn't there have to be some collusion? And if so, who are these other parties and why aren't we hearing about them?
EDIT 2: This might explain the channel stuffing comment, and provide some mechanism for it: "fraudulently concealed from investors and market analysts the scale of Autonomy’s hardware sales".
I am a bit familiar with Autonomy, but I don’t know the exact specifics. They were in the software license business, so if I were to speculate, they would get a new channel partner and then forward them 250 server licenses, book the full revenue during that quarter, and then the partner has to sell all the licenses. But that could possibly take years. Repeat with a handful of fresh partners and you could book a significant amount of revenue growth. Given Autonomy had access to huge amounts of credit, money could have been fronted and exchanged to make these transactions look very legitimate and this could have been lucrative for the partner.
The roundtripping is not very clear. Maybe the same thing thru one of their acquisition companies?
I'm slightly confused, and forgive my ignorance: how do you channel stuff software? I mean, granted this is 2009 - 2011, but even back then were Autonomy really selling software as a physically packaged good, or is there some way that virtual goods can be channel stuffed? (E.g., selling a shedload of license keys to resellers, many of which remain unsold to end users? Would that be something that even applied to the software Autonomy made?)
EDIT: Similarly, for roundtripping, doesn't there need to be another company or companies involved? Doesn't there have to be some collusion? And if so, who are these other parties and why aren't we hearing about them?
EDIT 2: This might explain the channel stuffing comment, and provide some mechanism for it: "fraudulently concealed from investors and market analysts the scale of Autonomy’s hardware sales".