Oracle boss blasts ouster of HP chief Hurd

Aug 10, 2010, 0:30 GMT

San Francisco - Larry Ellison, the leading Silicon Valley executive and chief of database maker Oracle, blasted Hewlett- Packard's board on Monday for forcing the resignation of HP chief executive Mark Hurd in the wake of a harassment investigation.

In a rare outburst over another company's personnel matters, Ellison called wrote to The New York Times, calling the action a grave mistake that betrayed the interests of the company's employees and shareholders.

'The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago,' Ellison wrote. 'That decision nearly destroyed Apple, and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them.'

Ellison wrote: 'In losing Mark Hurd, the HP board failed to act in the best interest of HP's employees, shareholders, customers and partners. The HP board admits that it fully investigated the sexual harassment claims against Mark and found them to be utterly false.'

The company's stock tumbled 7.4 per cent Monday, after Hurd stepped down Friday following a sexual harassment inquiry. The probe did clear him of the harassment accusations but found that he had filed inaccurate expense reports. Both Hurd and the woman who accused him of harassment, former actress Jodie Fisher, insisted that they did not have a sexual relationship.

Ellison is known to be a close friend with Hurd. Their companies had partnered on many business deals but also became competitors in the market of enterprise computers, after Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems earlier this year.

Hurd's ouster appeared to be popular among many in HP's workforce, which has suffered in the five years of Hurd's reign through relentless rounds of staff cuts. Hurd had just announced a further cut of 9,000 employees when the sexual harassment allegations surfaced.

'It's amazing to see how little support Mark Hurd has within HP,' wrote one claimed HP employee on The Wall Street Journal website. '(I) doubt there is anyone who is sad to see him go, and most employees would say: Serves him right! Mark may have made (Wall) Street happy, but has only made HP a miserable company to work in.'