In less than 24 hours, Oracle announced that Mark Hurd would be co-president of Oracle, and HP quickly reacted with a lawsuit.   Mark Hurd had resigned from H.P. after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced earlier this summer and the company’s board pressured him to step down.   “In his new positions, Hurd will be in a situation in which he cannot perform his duties for Oracle without necessarily using and disclosing H.P.’s trade secrets and confidential information to others,” H.P. wrote in its lawsuit. Although HP and Oracle work together as partners on database project, Oracles acquisition of Sun Microsystems makes HP more than a little nervous because of its competing line of computer servers, business software and storage products.

Larry Ellison, Oracle’s CEO, is a personal friend of Mark Hurd.   When the H.P. board of directors asked Mr. Hurd to resign, Larry Ellison fired off an e-mail message writing that this action was “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”  Upon leaving H.P, Mr. Hurd signed a two-year confidentiality agreement, which is likely to be referenced in H.P.’s lawsuit. Meanwhile the stock market reacted positively to the announcement that Mr. Hurd would be joining Oracle.  "There's clearly a lot of respect for Hurd as an operator," wrote Macquarie Research analyst Brad Zelnick. "To bring in that kind of institutional knowledge, particularly in a world where there is more competition between Oracle and H.P., and also IBM, the market clearly likes it." 

Related Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/technology/08hewlett.html?src=busln

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0724548420100907