#9 Apple Tastes $1 Billion Patent Victory

It’s for the first time in decades that patent wars ruled the top headlines, almost the entire year. A California District Court jury in August, ordered Samsung to pay $1 billion- may be the highest amount fined to anyone for patent infringement- to Apple. Almost all the major products from both companies were dragged into the courtrooms on alleged patent infringements. Samsung is appealing and the fight is going on in many courts around the world. Other tech giants including Microsoft, Google owned Motorola, Nokia and others also played their part in contributing to the patent war in the year.

Read: 9 Craziest Phone Patents Ever

#8 HP And The Biggest Accounting Scandal

Hewlett-Packard stunned the Wall Street and customers in November, when it alleged Autonomy, its subsidiary in UK, for a massive accounting scandal of $8.8 billion write-down. Eventhogh HP blamed Autonomy’s former management for all troubles, the company hit back, adding to the board room dramas happening inside the once leading PC manufacturer of the world. The company had made a series of missteps in this year including a short lived decision to enter the Smartphone-Tablet market and a decision to sell off its PC business. Meg Whitman, the new CEO, is trying to resurrect the company in every way possible. However, the company also lost its leading manufacturer title to Lenovo.