Hewlett Packard is facing a shareholder revolt in the form of a class action lawsuit launched in the Superior Court of Los Angeles by disgruntled shareholder Richard Gammel.

The suit alleges that CEO Leo Apotheker and the HP executive team were purposely concealing the fact that they were planning on spinning off HP’s PC division as well as abandoning webOS and discontinuing the TouchPad. In addition Gammel alleges that HP’s executive team knew the company’s business model was not working and they knowingly made false statements designed to artificially inflate the value of shares.

The lawsuit seeks to recover unspecified damages on behalf of any shareholder who owned HP stock between November 22, 2010, and Aug 18, 2011. In order to win the suit Gammel’s legal team would have to prove that Apotheker and other members of the HP executive team knew the statements were false when they were presented.

It should be noted that class action lawsuits of this nature are commonplace in the United States after major and sudden declines in stock prices. After HP announced it was seeking to spin off its PC business, as well as abandon webOS and the Touchpad, shares of the company plunged 20 percent the next day.

Under Apotheker’s regime, which began in November 2010, HP has lost 44 percent of its value. Tom Perkins, an outspoken former member of the HP Board of Directors says that the company is committing “corporate suicide”.