Hewlett-Packard has agreed in principle to the settlement regarding the backdating suit at Mercury Interactive, which HP acquired in 2006 Hewlett-Packard agreed in principle on Monday to resolve the stock-options backdating suit facing Mercury Interactive, a company it acquired in 2006, for $117.5 million.The settlement is pending and needs to be approved by the judge presiding over the case at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, HP said in a statement. The case was filed by the Mercury Pension Fund Group, a group of pension funds that hold Mercury stock, which alleged former Mercury Interactive executives improperly backdated stock options.The settlement was six times higher than any previous backdating settlement, according to a statement from Labaton Sucharow LLP, the law firm representing Mercury Pension Fund Group. HP acquired Mercury Interactive for $4.5 billion in July 2006. That year, Mercury was forced to restate its earnings for fiscal years 2002 to 2004 as previous statements failed to recognize compensation from internal stock-option grants.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probed Mercury’s accounting in 2005 and questioned the company’s handling of compensation based on backdated stock-option grants. A probe by a committee of Mercury’s board revealed that over the past decade Mercury had incorrectly reported the dates of at least 49 stock-option grants, picking a date on which the stock price was lower than when the option was actually granted.The investigation led to the resignation of then-CEO Amnon Landan, CFO Douglas Smith, and General Counsel Susan Skaer. Technology Industry