SAP legal u-turn delivers new HP boss for Monday start It looks like Leo Apotheker will be able to get through his first day as HP boss without getting hauled into court to testify in former employer SAP's trade secrets theft case with Oracle. Apotheker is expected to get his feet under the table at HP on Monday. However, the same day was scheduled to be the opener in Oracle's …
And in these days of less (within the public sector where I work for half of my time), both Oracle and HP are getting marked down (either to procure from or as a target for more aggressive 'cut costs or else') as a result of this little spat.
Well, it's turkeys looking forward to Christmas. I am just waiting for the next set of class actions against both boards for destroying shareholder value.
If I were an investor, I'd be looking poorly on both of these companies... but I don't see why any of this would affect the purchasing equation.
Purchasing decisions should be made from a CBA (value for the money) analysis and their expected reliability/trustworthiness to deliver on their commitments... not how you feel about the company leadership.
"expected reliability/trustworthiness to deliver on their commitments... company leadership."
Surely those two things are linked though? I would be wary about signing a massive agreement with a company undergoing changes which could affect it's future behaviour... stability matters.
If management is determined to drive a company into the ground, it is stupid to keep on buying their products, unless your investment has a very short term ROI. For both HP and Oracle products, you are investing in training and know how very substantial amounts of money, which makes your investment a very long term proposition, to be leveraged across multiple revisions and subsequent purchases from the same vendors. If Oracle and HP are determined to waste their time and money in court, we, as customers pay for the attorneys, and this makes their products less compelling compared to alternatives.
Thanks for explaining those downvotes :)
As a Legacy EDS and current HPES employee... I see your point - *especially* if you're talking services contracts of the type that I work with. I guess just to explain where I was coming from, when I think of HP and procurement I think of x86/x64 (Proliant) servers, printers and desktops - all of which are, IMO, commodity type purchases with a 3-5 year lifespan and not *too* much in terms of sunk cost to move to another vendor when you're due for a refresh.
That is different, of course, than sinking a serious investment in, say, an HP/UX or Oracle infrastructure... or an outsourcing agreement with HPES. Those types of purchases are extremely expensive and difficult to back out of - so no disagreement there.
Cheers!
This whole mess is really looking bad for the HP board of directors.
Their fearless leader, formerly with Oracle, replaces someone fired by HP for alleged mathematics problems with his expenses, who gets hired by Oracle.
Then the former Oracle board chair hires the president of a SAP subsidiary who admits to IP theft .
The whole arrangement sounds somewhat incestuous. My money is on Apotheker getting fired and possibly the ex-Oracle HP chair! Wonder what the payoff's are for fired alleged crooks?
Good time to grab HP shares cheap?
Is this about one 'egotistical sociopath' from company $X accusing another 'egotistical sociopath' from company $Y of lying about stealing products whilst hiring another 'egotistical sociopath' from the company who's hired the second 'egotistical sociopath' who used to work at company $Z?
Set X, Y and Z to the high market cap IT companies of choice.
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