CA blames typo for £97m error

In a statement issued on 16 April, the firm claimed that it generated profits of about 40 cents a share, around $230m (£160m), for the 12 months to 31 March 2001. But a later revised statement posted last week altered this figure to 16 cents a share, or $90m (£130m).

According to a report in the New York Times, CA said the mistake occurred when the person who prepared a chart for the statement inserted the wrong number from a spreadsheet.

The newspaper published an article this weekend which quoted former employees and analysts as saying that CA had a long history of using accounting manoeuvres to overstate profits, a charge that CA has denied.

Last year, the company changed an initial statement that it made revenues of $2.13bn (£1.5bn) to $1.91bn (£1.3bn) after including some contracts that had been signed in the previous three months, but had already been included in previous figures.

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CA denies accounting 'tricks' allegation