Oracle Welcomes Former HP CEO, Mark Hurd as Co-President

Sexual harassment may have played a part in Mark Hurd leaving his post as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, yet it was his ability to lead and his experience with HP that led to his new position at Oracle (News - Alert). The Associated Press has reported Hurd will help lead the software database maker in its quest to grab more of HP’s market share.

Hurd’s new position as no-president of Oracle comes just one month after his resignation from HP. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison (News - Alert) loudly opposed HP’s treatment of Hurd and referred to it as the worst personnel decision since Apple forced out Steve Jobs 25 years earlier.

Oracle and HP have worked together for years to be sure their products worked well together. Hurd’s change in ships highlights the change in the climate between the two power players. Now that Oracle is competing in one of HP’s biggest markets – selling computer servers to power the back office of businesses – the two are squarely pitted against each other.

"Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle," Ellison said in the AP report. "There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark. Oracle's future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise."

Oracle is losing one of its two presidents, Charles Phillips, to make room for Hurd. According to Ellison, Phillips wanted to leave Oracle in December of 2009, but agreed to stay through the integration of Sun Microsystems (News - Alert) at Ellison’s request.

While this management maneuvering appears to be just a shakeup of technology celebrities, Oracle could also be seeking industry knowledge. Of course, Hurd is subject to a confidentiality agreement that restricts what he is able to share with Oracle about HP business. On the other hand, Hurd has a demonstrated ability to steer large technology companies and make them even bigger.

While Oracle enjoys a richly profitable business as the top seller of database software, the company is trying to establish itself in new territories. The company has also been growing through acquisitions, most notably the purchase of Sun last year, which pitted Oracle directly against HP.

Hurd got his feet wet when he led a similar massive makeover at HP, engineering more than $20 billion in acquisitions. Such moves ensured the company was less reliant on printer ink as its primary source of profits. Hurd is also known as a cost-cutter and HP announced 50,000 jobs cut during his leadership.