Larry Ellison Defends Mark Hurd
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In an email to the New York Times, Oracle Corp.'s (NASDAQ: ORCL) Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison publicly blasted the board at Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) for its decision to force CEO Mark Hurd out.
The email stated that the decision by HP to force Hurd, a close friend of Ellison, to resign had been the worst decision by a Board since Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) pushed Steve Jobs out in 1985.
"The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago" Mr. Ellison wrote. "That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them."
Hurd resigned on Friday after an inquiry into sexual harassment turned up that he filed inaccurate expense reports.
Ellison also added that the Board at HP dishonestly said that it had voted unanimously to go public with the claim of sexual harassment against Hurd.
"Publishing known false sexual harassment claims is not good corporate governance; it's cowardly corporate political correctness," Ellison said. "What the expense fraud claims do reveal is an HP board desperately grasping at straws in trying to publicly explain the unexplainable.”
The Oracle CEO said that the HP Board actually voted 6-4, but he did not disclose in the email where he came upon this information.
A spokeswoman at for HP said "As the company stated previously, the board voted unanimously for Mr. Hurd's resignation. And, that was the only vote the board took on this issue."
Oracle is the world’s third-largest software maker and a major partner of HP, the world’s top maker of personal computers.
Shares of HP are up 19 cents to $42.79 in early market movement Tuesday after falling on Monday following the news, while shares of Oracle are down 1.15 percent to $23.98.
The email stated that the decision by HP to force Hurd, a close friend of Ellison, to resign had been the worst decision by a Board since Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) pushed Steve Jobs out in 1985.
"The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago" Mr. Ellison wrote. "That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them."
Hurd resigned on Friday after an inquiry into sexual harassment turned up that he filed inaccurate expense reports.
Ellison also added that the Board at HP dishonestly said that it had voted unanimously to go public with the claim of sexual harassment against Hurd.
"Publishing known false sexual harassment claims is not good corporate governance; it's cowardly corporate political correctness," Ellison said. "What the expense fraud claims do reveal is an HP board desperately grasping at straws in trying to publicly explain the unexplainable.”
The Oracle CEO said that the HP Board actually voted 6-4, but he did not disclose in the email where he came upon this information.
A spokeswoman at for HP said "As the company stated previously, the board voted unanimously for Mr. Hurd's resignation. And, that was the only vote the board took on this issue."
Oracle is the world’s third-largest software maker and a major partner of HP, the world’s top maker of personal computers.
Shares of HP are up 19 cents to $42.79 in early market movement Tuesday after falling on Monday following the news, while shares of Oracle are down 1.15 percent to $23.98.
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