At least one high-level Hewlett-Packard executive, Catherine A. Lesjak, the former acting chief executive and currently the chief financial officer, was implacably opposed to the deal and spoke out internally. According to an account in Fortune magazine, which H.P. hasn’t disputed, Ms. Lesjak made an impassioned presentation to the board and argued that the deal wasn’t in the best interests of shareholders. One person who spoke to her the day the deal was announced said she was afraid she’d be fired for being so outspoken. The week after the deal was announced, she canceled an appearance at a road show meant to defend the deal and its terms.

In the days after the announcement, Mr. Lane heard from a chorus of disgruntled major shareholders. According to Mr. Sacconaghi, who said he spoke to many of them, “Not one person thought H.P. should do this deal. There was so much bitterness. They were begging Ray Lane to find a way out to get out of the deal, but he said they were stuck.”

The Hewlett-Packard spokesman said Ms. Lesjak and Mr. Lane declined to comment. Mr. Apotheker couldn’t be reached, but he had earlier told The Wall Street Journal that H.P.’s due diligence was “meticulous and thorough” and that although the latest allegations were a “shock,” he still believed in Autonomy’s potential.

Mr. Apotheker was fired by H.P. on Sept. 22, less than a month after the announcement. Mr. Lane “did listen to shareholders, and his reaction was to fire Léo,” Mr. Sacconaghi said. “But he should also have hired a team of forensic accountants to scrutinize Autonomy’s accounting and find an excuse to get out of the deal. There were rumors swirling then that the accounting was fishy.”

The former Autonomy executive said: “There was chatter they were trying to get out of the deal. But we were never presented with anything concrete.”

The Autonomy acquisition was a disaster almost from Day 1. Mr. Lynch and other former Autonomy executives said this was entirely H.P.’s fault. “We tried really hard to make this work,” the former Autonomy executive said. “Instead of doing it the Autonomy way, which is to sweep problems out of the way and move full steam ahead, we got bogged down in H.P. process.” Far from increasing revenue at the forecast double-digit rates, Autonomy’s revenue started to drop precipitously.