Oracle hires Hurd - HP takes it to court

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 08 September 2010 13:02

IT People - People

Oracle has hired Mark Hurd, only to be faced with a lawsuit filed by HP in an attempt to stop its former CEO working for a competitor.

Former HP chairman, CEO and president, Mark Hurd, recently resigned after being accused of sexual harassment by a former contractor.

While an investigation by HP found he had not violated the company's harassment policy, it did reveal irregularities in expense payments.

Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison publicly criticised the HP board's handling of the matter, saying it was "the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago."

Oracle and HP have traditionally worked together in their respective roles as software and hardware vendors. But Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems made it a hardware supplier too. This situation is similar to the way Google's move into the mobile phone space has led to a weakening od its ties with Apple.

Hurd has now been hired by Oracle as a president and member of the board, replacing Charles Philips. "Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle," said Ellison.

"There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark. Oracle’s future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise. Mark pioneered the integration of hardware with software when Teradata was a part of NCR," he added.

HP has turned to the courts in an attempt to block the appointment - see page 2.