Ex-HP CEO Mark Hurd has been named co-president at Oracle. Maybe Charles Phillips, one of the two former co-presidents of software giant and hardware wannabe Oracle, should have spent more time on the tennis courts with founder and CEO Larry Ellison and less time in the office. The strategy seems to have worked well for Hurd …

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Tuesday 7th September 2010 10:05 GMT Anonymous Coward

Hmm...

One wonders whether there might have been an element of planning about this appointment. Hurd had waved his chopper about (in more ways than one) and might have been approaching the end of his reign at HP with no further cuts feasible. Is it possible that his good mate Ellison had a word as they duelled over the net about joining Orrible? Could the HP board have become suspicious of what was happening and shoved him out before Hurd had a chance to inflict wilful damage on the HP corporation?

After all, just perhaps Hurd might have chosen to go at a time when HP would have been much more embarassed, so they took the hit at the end of Q3.

Little green men do exist, and I will keep taking the tablets, honest luv.

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1. Tuesday 7th September 2010 13:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Title
  
  If he had done as you say, HP would have been better off waiting for him to try to hurt the company, then suing him for breach of fiduciary duty.
  
  The Hurd/Ellison friendship was very good for HP, it meant Oracle would (relatively speaking) play nice with HP. Without Hurd there, all bets are off as far as that relationship goes, meaning Oracle can and will devote more time and resources to Cisco/IBM/etc.
  
  Of course, the industry speculation now is that long term Oracle wants to create a new OS and compete with Microsoft. The Hurd/Ellison friendship was standing in the way of a full Microsoft partnership with HP.
  
  Now both things can come to pass more easily. I'm not sure that HP came out better off than they were back in June.
  
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Tuesday 7th September 2010 10:08 GMT Anonymous Coward

Translation...

"Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle"

...

"Mark sacked a lot of engineers at HP whilst lining his own pockets, and I expect him to sack more and make more at Oracle"

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Tuesday 7th September 2010 10:08 GMT dbnnet

NCR+HP+Oracle = ?

Well, I wonder how many quarters it will take before Hurd starts closing down offices, cutting staff and generally taking Oracle down the path of no return as he did at HP and NCR before that. This guy is a one trick pony – A bean counter, nothing more nothing less.

SAP and IBM will be delighted with this development!

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Tuesday 7th September 2010 10:08 GMT Anonymous Coward

Speeding the end of excellence

From my own knowledge of Mark Hurd's time at NCR, his only "talent" it seems is to cut R&D and save money by off-shoring work irrespective of the resulting quality. Maybe that is how the modern industry works:

Screw your customer, deliver crap products from a once-great business, promise it will be better next time, take your big bonus and move to your next CEO post. Repeat...

I think he did the same at HP: moving from the high end of business and good reputation to mass market Dell-ification, but profits are all that matter you know old boy! Workers, moral and morality are disposable in the search for bigger $$$

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Tuesday 7th September 2010 10:09 GMT Eric Hood

HP will not be happy

I wonder if the HP lawyers will try and block his appointment. I expect they do not have a lot of options since they fired his arse.

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Tuesday 7th September 2010 11:39 GMT Anonymous Coward

I expect they do not have a lot of options

From Eric Hood's post above.

For mere mortal employees their contract of employment might well include a clause which prevents them joining a competitor within a given timeframe.

But here we are talking about the glorious who have risen about the normal rules. And such rules won't apply (he probably wrote the damn things). So I don't think that HP lawyers will be troubled by this.

One thing we can hope for is that he does the same damage to Orrible as he has done to his previous companies.

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1. Tuesday 7th September 2010 13:57 GMT Matt Bryant
  
  RE: I expect they do not have a lot of options
  
  Not neccessarily. Remember, Donatelli was caught out by his competitive clause when he left EMC for hp, he had to spend a year pretending he wasn't doing anything with storage. But in this case, hp probably won't unleash the lawyers as they want to stay cuddly with Larry. There's also the matter Snoreacle just ain't competitive anyway (the old Sun UNIX bizz is dying, their x64 bizz is going to be where Hurd goes to work with his axe, and their storage number is miniscule).
  
  And as to Hurd crucifying Oracle, the difference is he doesn't have the top job, he's only on par with Safra Catz and won't have the punch to over-rule Larry. The nightmare for Oraclistas begins if Larry nominates Hurd as his successor, as Catz would probably jump ship in that case as well, giving Hurd a free hand to chop, chop, chop!
  
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  1. Wednesday 8th September 2010 09:47 GMT Matt Bryant
    
    CORRECTION - RE: I expect they do not have a lot of options
    
    Looks like I was wrong about hp wanting most to stay cuddly with Larry, they have unleashed the legal beagles on Hurd:
    
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/07/hp_sues_hurd_oracle_confidentiality/
    
    So, having upset IBM and hp, maybe Larry is really hoping that CISCO will sell some Oracle licences for him?
    
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Tuesday 7th September 2010 14:01 GMT Anonymous Coward

there goes Oracle....

I think that HP got rid of Hurd at a good time, especially after the damage that he has done here at HP. I think everyone is still in shock that he got paid off. If you asked most people at HP you could see how damaging to future growth Hurd the turd had on the business. It isn't hard to sack people make some massive savings, if at the same time you limited R&D, which still is going to possibly hurt HP down the track, as it take a bit of time for the lack of investment in R&D to surface.

I am personally glad he is gone, just wouldn't like to be at Oracle right now. Any idiot could do his job.

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Tuesday 7th September 2010 19:53 GMT Eduard Coli

The Axeman Comeith

Why would the samurai need an axeman anyway?

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Tuesday 7th September 2010 19:53 GMT Anonymous Coward

Oracle employees: be very afraid

My advice to the good people employed by Oracle:

- Get your resume in order

- Start investigating new places to work

- If offered severance, take it.

Mark Hurd will cut employees, compensation, and infrastructure. Continuously. Even when you think there is nothing more that can be cut.

He doesn't just cut fat, he cuts into the muscle and the bone.

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Wednesday 8th September 2010 18:21 GMT Anonymous Coward

I expect...

Hurd uses "language" like "transition out of the company" too. I expect they'll be very happy together.

It must be nice to be able to loose one's job in a company where one was hated amid a world-wide scandal and have one of your mates welcome you to another lucrative post. Many would just have the dole to look forward to.

Bitter? Envious? What, moi?

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