Long before Hewlett-Packard paid $11 billion for what turned out to be its disastrous purchase of Autonomy, a handful of industry experts were raising red flags about the British software company's accounting practices and claims of continuous growth. HP said this month that it only recently discovered what it characterized as fraud and other problems that have forced it to write off almost $9 billion of deal. But despite Autonomy's generally favorable reception by investors on the London stock market, a vocal group of critics were sounding alarms about the company as far back as 2007.<br />