Oracle CEO Larry Ellison calls HP board ‘idiots’

It would be hard this week to have escaped the name “Mark Hurd” – Hewlett Packards infamous CEO who resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct.

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle has been speaking out in defense of Hurd and condemning HP's board for their actions. Hurd and Ellison are apparently friends which is quite refreshing considering there have been some competitive elements between companies.

Ellison sent an email to the New York Times saying “The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn’t come back and saved them. In losing Mark Hurd, the H.P. board failed to act in the best interest of H.P.’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners. The H.P. board admits that it fully investigated the sexual harassment claims against Mark and found them to be utterly false.”

Ellison also has said that a debate was rife between members of the HP board on whether they should release the allegations of ‘sexual harrasment' to the public. Hurd has supposedly felt it wasn't necessary to force disclosure of the allegations after an investigation by the HP board found the claims were false.

The last reports in shows that Jodie Fisher and Mark Hurd claim that there was no romantic relationship between them however Fisher has apparently settled the claims with Hurd for an unknown amount of money. In the end Hurd was not made to resign due to this, but for falsifying expense reports in an effort to conceal the relationship.

KitGuru says: Hurd is set to get a rather huge settlement figure from HP for his forced redundancy – a figure between $40 and $50 million.

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