Mark Hurds entry: Is it a boon for Oracle?
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 08 September 2010, 20:20 IST   |    1 Comments
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Bangalore: A day after Oracle hired Mark Hurd as its co-president, Hewlett-Packard (HP) went to the court to prevent its ex-CEO from taking the post. The move by HP has been strongly criticized by Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison, suggesting an end to the 25-years old partnership between the two companies. Being strategic customers for years, HP and Oracle have over 100,000 joint customers. Apart from being the leading Oracle applications infrastructure partner, HP is the key platform provider for the development of Oracle's Itanium-based databases for Linux, Unix and Windows. Oracle has long viewed HP as an important partner, but by filing the lawsuit, HP had showed utter disregard for that partnership. The HP Board is making it virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to work together in the IT marketplace, said Ellison. In the lawsuit, HP claims that Hurd won't be able to perform his job at Oracle without spilling HP's trade secrets and violating a confidentiality agreement. While Hurd, who will replace Charles Phillips as co-president alongside Safra Catz, is going to manage Oracle's sales, marketing and client support, Ellison will still chart the ship's course. This division of power may result in executive infighting, but should nevertheless work for Oracle. Hurd has often been criticized for his lack of strategic vision, but at the same time he is also best known for cost-cutting after acquisitions. In the year ending October 2009, Hurd increased HP's operating margins from 4 percent in 2005 to about 9 percent. Investors like the prospects, and sent Oracle shares up 7.6 percent, to $24.67 on Tuesday. It's the growing resentment between the two companies that has been showed by the lawsuit. Ellison, who criticized the HP board when it forced out Mark Hurd, has got a lieutenant in disguise by hiring Hurd.

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