HP lawsuit against ex-CEO Mark Hurd dropped

Yesterday Hewlett Packard agreed to end their lawsuit against Mark Hurd after he went to work for rival company Oracle.

It what seems to be an almost weekly soap opera now, HP have dropped their case against Hurd after he has agreed not to disclose HP's trade secrets to his new employer and he has also waived his rights to nearly 345,000 special stock units he was entitled to as part of his severance package. This corresponds to around $14 million if sold on the market today. Quite how HP would ever prove he leaked info to Oracle anyway is a puzzlement.

Mark Hurd needs not to worry however, he was given $12 million in cash after stepping down and 775,000 stock options worth tens of millions more. He won't be in financial trouble anytime soon then.

Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison has assuredly fueled the fire by publicly mocking HP for what he said was “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs.” When HP fired Hurd, Ellison jumped at the chance to hire him.

“HP and Oracle have been important partners for more than 20 years and are committed to working together to provide exceptional products and service to our customers,” said HP's acting chief executive, Cathie Lesjak, in a statement. “We look forward to collaborating with Oracle in the future.”

KitGuru: We wonder what will happen next in the HP v Oracle public soap opera.

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