It was a fairly surprising decision when Hewlett-Packard Co. decided to fire its CEO Mark Hurd in light of sexual harassment allegations, later dismissed. Now the company is suing him in an attempt to block his assuming a position at rival Oracle Corporation.
The lawsuit comes one day after the announcement that Hurd would be joining Oracle as a co-president. HP claims Hurd will be unable to perform his duties in the new position without revealing HP’s secrets, violating a confidentiality agreement Hurd has with his former employer.
Such lawsuits are not uncommon in the tech industry, where the most valuable assets of the company are pieces of information that are impossible to keep track of when someone leaves the company.
The lawsuit highlights a growing distaste the two companies have for each other after Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems for over $7.4 billion last year. The purchase moved Oracle into the business of selling the large, industrial computer servers the power companies’ back end functions — and putting it in direct competition with HP, with whom it had worked for over two decades to ensure Oracle’s database software worked well with HP’s systems.
Hurd was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard for five years. In the position, he dealt closely with the corporation’s strategic plans, including those dealing with its competitor Oracle, as well as financial records revealing profit margins, costs, and other confidential information.
It is expected that the lawsuit may delay Hurd taking his position with Oracle, but it is unlikely to completely block it. Most such cases end in court orders for the new hire to avoid certain aspects of the new employer’s business, but Hurd’s wide-reaching knowledge of HP may complicate such a ruling.
