The Wall Street Journal reports former HP CEO Mark Hurd is in negotiations with enterprise software specialist Oracle to join the company as a high-ranking executive.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd, who
resigned from his post with the
technology giant in the face of sexual harassment issues, is in current
negotiations with enterprise software specialist Oracle to join the company as
a top-ranking executive, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The paper reported "people
familiar with the matter" explained there was no specific timeline in the
process and talks were still ongoing. Before being hired, Oracle's board would
have to agree to the decision, the paper reported.
In early August, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison
sharply criticized
HP's board of directors for firing in Hurd, accusing the group of "cowardly
corporate political correctness." In an e-mail sent to The New York Times
on Aug. 9, Ellison called the HP board's move "the worst personnel
decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.
That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back
and saved them."
In the event that Hurd is hired, it would serve as a remarkable turnaround
for the former HP CEO, who was ousted after
allegations of sexual harassment. After an internal investigation, the HP board
found no evidence to support the sexual harassment charge levied by Jodie
Fisher, a 50-year-old one-time actress who attended HP functions with Hurd.
However, Hurd apparently falsified expense reports to cover up his personal
relationship with Fisher and to pay her for work that she never performed.
As of this year, Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle, has served as Oracle's CEO
throughout its history. Specializing in database management systems the company
also builds tools for database development and systems of middle-tier software,
enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management
software (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM)
software. By 2007, Oracle had the third-largest software revenue, after
Microsoft and IBM.
Following Hurd's departure, the HP board appointed Chief Financial Officer Cathie
Lesjak, 51, as CEO on an interim basis.
Lesjak, a 24-year veteran of the company, has served as HP's CFO and as a
member of the company's Executive Council since January 2007.
Ezra Gottheil, senior analyst at Technology Business Research, said despite
the controversy surrounding Hurd's departure, the company remains in an
excellent market position. "Under Hurd's guidance, the company controlled
costs through the recession, allowing it to maintain operating margins of at
least 8 percent throughout three consecutive quarters (1Q09-3Q09) of revenues
that decreased year-to-year," Gottheil wrote. "These results were
particularly impressive considering HP was digesting the $13.9 billion
acquisition of EDS, a merger that gives HP a
strong services arm."
HP recently triumphed over rival IT giant Dell in
a bidding war for 3PAR, a storage company that specializes in handling data in
massive amounts for large-scale IT systems. HP ponied up $2.35 billion to
acquire the company, which translates into a $33-per-share bid. Finalization of
the transaction, however, will be dependent upon the shareholders of each
company, who will vote on the deal within the next few weeks.
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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