The HP securities settlement is a $100 million class action resolution paid out to shareholders who bought Hewlett-Packard common stock between August 19, 2011, and November 20, 2012, the period surrounding HP’s troubled acquisition of British software company Autonomy. The court approved the distribution plan on April 4, 2025, and initial payments went out to approved claimants in June 2025.1HP Securities Settlement. HP Securities Settlement Rolling distributions from remaining funds continue as deficiencies get resolved and uncashed checks come back into the pool. The claims window is closed, so no new claims are being accepted.
Who Qualified for a Payment
Eligibility turned on a single window called the Class Period: August 19, 2011 through November 20, 2012. You needed to have purchased or acquired HP common stock during those dates and held some of those shares as corrective information reached the market. Bonds, options, and other HP instruments were not covered. Common stock only.
Some categories of buyers were excluded regardless:
- HP executives and board members named in the litigation, and their immediate family.
- Companies the defendants controlled, and HP subsidiaries.
- Investors who sold every share before the first corrective disclosure hit the market. Without a loss tied to the disclosure, there was nothing to recover.
The settling defendants were HP itself and then-CEO Margaret C. Whitman. HP’s insurance funded the $100 million. The case, In re HP Securities Litigation, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, with Dutch pension fund manager PGGM Vermogensbeheer B.V. serving as lead plaintiff.2Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP. Notice of Pendency and Proposed Settlement of Class Action
How Payments Were Calculated
No one received a flat amount. The Plan of Allocation calculated each claimant’s Recognized Loss based on the gap between what they paid for shares and what those shares were worth once the accounting problems became public. If you bought at an inflated price and the price fell after the truth came out, your recognized loss reflects that drop.
For claimants who traded in and out of HP during the Class Period, transactions were matched on a first-in, first-out basis, so the earliest purchases counted as the first shares sold. Short sales got nothing. If your overall Class Period trading netted a profit on HP stock, your recognized loss was zero, no matter how badly any single trade went.
Once every valid claim’s recognized loss was tallied, the administrator divided the net settlement fund proportionally. Attorney fees, litigation costs, administrative expenses, and a lead plaintiff reimbursement capped at $175,000 came out of the $100 million before distribution.2Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP. Notice of Pendency and Proposed Settlement of Class Action Because total valid claims almost always exceed the fund in a securities case, each claimant received a fraction of their full recognized loss, not the whole amount.
Where the Distribution Stands Now
Initial checks were mailed in June 2025 following the court’s April 4, 2025 approval of the distribution plan.1HP Securities Settlement. HP Securities Settlement Rolling distributions continue on an ongoing basis. Those later payments generally cover claimants whose initial payments were held while deficiencies were fixed, and redistribution of funds from checks that were never cashed.
If you filed a valid claim and got a check, cashing it is the only remaining step. If you never filed, the claims deadline has passed and the administrator is not accepting new submissions.
If You Filed but Haven’t Been Paid
A few things can explain a missing check. Your claim may have been rejected or held for incomplete information. Your check may have gone to an outdated address. The first move is to contact the claims administrator through the settlement website to check the status and update your address if needed.
If a check was issued but you never cashed it, act quickly. Settlement checks typically expire after 90 to 180 days. Before the funds are escheated, the administrator can often reissue the check if you ask in writing. Escheatment is the process by which unclaimed financial assets are turned over to state unclaimed property programs after a dormancy period, usually around five years.3Investor.gov. Escheatment by Financial Institutions Once funds are escheated, you can still recover them by filing an unclaimed property claim with the relevant state. States hold these funds indefinitely, and former owners or heirs can claim them at any time.
For a deceased claimant, heirs generally need a death certificate, proof of relationship, and probate documentation. A small estate affidavit may be enough in some jurisdictions to release the funds without full probate.
Taxes on Your Payment
Payments from a securities fraud settlement are generally taxable. The IRS treats most lawsuit proceeds as income under Internal Revenue Code Section 61, and the payer is required to issue a Form 1099 for the amount.4Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments Securities settlements have a wrinkle that often works in a claimant’s favor: because the money compensates you for overpaying for stock, it functions more like a return of capital than fresh income.
In practice, that means reducing the cost basis of the HP shares tied to your claim by the settlement amount. If you already sold those shares and booked a capital loss on a prior return, the settlement effectively shrinks that loss. If you still hold the shares, your adjusted basis going forward is lower. The interaction between the original trades, any losses already claimed, and the settlement payment can get complicated fast, so a tax professional is worth the call.
A Separate HP Inc. Case Not To Confuse With This One
HP split into two companies in November 2015, forming HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. A different securities class action was later filed against HP Inc. covering a class period from November 2015 through June 2016, with a $39 million settlement fund. It has its own case number, its own claims process, and its own eligibility rules. If you were looking for information on that case, this is not it, and filing for one does not affect the other.