Books are clean says CA

The statement followed a report in The Wall Street Journalthis week that said US federal investigators were looking into claims by former CA employees that the management software vendor back-dated and forward-dated customer contracts and used free software to meet financial targets.

CA said its revenue recognition criteria were met and that transactions referred to in the article were examined by outside auditors and found to be in order.

It said the former employees and their lawyers were confused by the difference in dates on internal sales documents and signed contracts.

The company called their comments "an attempt to embarrass the company and press their individual lawsuits" against CA.

CA chairman and CEO Sanjay Kumar last week said the investigation by the SEC and the US Attorney's Office had not escalated after a report that former employees and customers had received subpoenas.

"I would personally disagree with that characterisation given what I know today, given what the company knows, and given what the company's counsel knows about that," Kumar said. "We have not been informed of any escalation with respect to the inquiry. Neither have our outside counsel been informed of any escalation with respect to the inquiry," he said.