Oracle and HP Make Up

Update 3: The companies have apparently resolved their differences and will continue their partnership. Bloomberg BusinessWeek has details.

Update 2: Oracle has responded with the following statement:

“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."

Update: HP is now suing Hurd. The company released this statement:

“Mark Hurd agreed to and signed agreements designed to protect HP’s trade secrets and confidential information. HP intends to enforce those agreements.”

More on HP’s corporate blog.

Original Article: Oracle announced that Mark Hurd is now the Co-President of the company, and has been named to the Board of Directors. Yes, that Mark Hurd.

Hurd was recently forced to resign as CEO of HP after an internal investigation from the company around a questionable relationship with a contractor and related expense reports. It didn’t take long for him to get another job.

"Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do even better at Oracle," said Oracle CEO Larry 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."

"Mark is an outstanding executive and a proven winner," said Oracle President Safra Catz. "I look forward to working with him for years to come. As Oracle continues to grow we need people experienced in operating a $100 billion business."

"I believe Oracle’s strategy of combining software with hardware will enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise servers and storage," said Hurd. "Exadata is just the beginning. We have some exciting new systems we are going to announce later this month at Oracle OpenWorld. I’m excited to be a part of the most innovative technology team in the IT industry."

The New York Times ran a story a few weeks ago about Hurd’s reputation among HP’ staff. Let’s just say it was painted in an unfavorable light. Hopefully Oracle’s staff will get along with him better, if there’s any truth to that.

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