Yes. It does give Autonomy an easy out: "Sure Oracle, we did pitch selling ourselves to you - on the morning of April 1st! Didn't you get the joke?!?! Joke aside, the meeting was indeed as we described in our first response."
Either that, or the two companies are actually having a joke at our (tech industry watchers) expense.
If Autonomy's CEO said it was an April Fools joke, then HP and himself would not look very good in front of Wall Street or stock holders. There might actually be SEC complications also.
No, he would lose creditability with everyone. You do not "punk" other companies. All future meetings would be clouded with the thought "is this real, or another punk by this guy".
