The dramatic battle between Mark Hurd, HP, and Oracle continues. Yesterday Oracle announced that it was hiring recently-ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd as Co-President and a member of its Board. HP responded this morning by suing Hurd, alleging that he would potentially leak trade secrets to Oracle. Oracle has just responded to the suit, and it isn’t pulling any punches:
“Oracle has long viewed HP as an important partner,” said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. “By filing this vindictive lawsuit against Oracle and Mark Hurd, the HP board is acting with utter disregard for that partnership, our joint customers, and their own shareholders and employees. The HP Board is making it virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to cooperate and work together in the IT marketplace.”
Hurd was forced to leave HP after allegations that he harassed former HP contractor Jodie Fisher (he was cleared of those charges, but was found to have fudged some expense reports). At the time Ellison, who is a friend of Hurd’s, called the firing “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.” Also worth noting: Hurd’s severance package is worth more than $35 million, though HP is alleging he’s breaching some of his contractual agreements (which could impact the severance).
Mark Hurd is the Co-President at Oracle, which he joined in early September 2010. Prior to Oracle, Hurd had most recently served as chief executive officer and president of HP and a member of the company’s board of directors since early 2005. In September 2006, he was named chairman of the board. Hurd was forced out of his position at HP in August 2010. Prior to joining HP, Hurd spent 25 years at NCR Corp., where he held a variety...
Larry Ellison has been CEO of Oracle Corporation since he founded the company in 1977. He also races sailboats, flies planes, and plays tennis and guitar.
Oracle is an enterprise IT company with a specialty in database management systems.
Hewlett-Packard technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA. HP is one of the world’s largest information technology companies and operates in nearly every country. HP specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, data storage, and networking hardware, designing software and delivering services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise servers, related storage devices, as well as a diverse range of printers and other imaging products. HP markets its products to households, small to medium size businesses and enterprises...
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