HP wins a battle in legal war with Oracle
- Reduce text size Decrease text size
- Increase text size Increase text size
- Print article Print
- Jump to comments Comment
- Share this article Share
- Email article to a friend Email
California Supreme court rejects Oracle's fraud claim against HP, and orders both companies to unseal documents relating to their Itanium dispute
IT giant Hewlett-Packard has won a battle in its ongoing legal war with Oracle over executive appointments and high performance chips.
In September 2010, HP sued software and systems vendor Oracle in for hiring its former CEO Mark Hurd. Oracle later alleged that in the ensuring legal discussions, HP failed to disclose that it planned to hire former SAP CEO Leo Apotheker and ex-Oracle executive Ray Lane.
Oracle said that this put it at an unfair disadvantage during negotiations. However, US Supreme Court judge James Kleinberg rejected this claim yesterday.
The dispute of executive appointments is just one component of a collection of claims and counterclaims between the two companies.
Oracle and HP have also locked horns over the former's decision to cease support for Intel's Itanium chips, which HP uses in its high availability, Unix-based server range.
Yesterday, Kleinberg also ruled that both companies unseal key documents related to the Itanium dispute.
Oracle said it was looking forward to the publication of documents which it claims will show that HP had "known for years" that Itanium due to be phased out by Intel. HP said the unsealed documents would show that Oracle's decision to end support for Itanium chips was a "calculated business strategy to drive hardware sales from Itanium to inferior Sun servers".
HP took the opportunity to allege that Oracle had been labeled "self-serving and anticustomer" by HP customers. It quoted one public sector customer as saying that it could not afford to switch platforms at Oracle's whim, and that Oracle's descision would have a significant financial impact on "cash-strapped government entities".
Oracle's statement, meanwhile, claims that HP is attempting to "create market perception of long term viability [for Itanium]", and quotes HP as saying "HP-UX is on a death march due to inevitable Itanium trajectory."
Meanwhile, HP has taken measures that allow Intel's x86 chips to be used in its so-called 'mission critical systems' range.
