Oracle vs HP: Tech's Animal House War Begins
Think of it as Delta Tau Chi vs. Dean Vernon Worner in Animal House: Buttoned-down tech giant Hewlett Packard has filed suit against its scandal-tainted former CEO for joining Oracle, home to the most infamous skirt chasers in Silicon Valley.
HP filed a breach of contract suit in California Superior court today, alleging ex CEO Mark Hurd had no business taking a job at rival business tech company Oracle. After fighting off sexual harassment allegations from a softcore porn actress, Hurd resigned HP last month for falsifying expenses and other violations of HP's business conduct standards. Hurd was publicly defended and, yesterday, hired by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. That would be the same, thrice-divorced Larry Ellison who has a long history of office romances, and who has stood by Chuck Phillips after the Oracle co-president was outed for a longtime extramarital affair, via billboard. This legal battle, then, should be long. And, we hope, highly entertaining, and highly immature.