Mercury News
There’s been a further snag in Hewlett-Packard’s effort to hire a former top EMC executive and put him in charge of HP’s newly reorganized data center business, just as competition in that arena is heating up.
A Massachusetts court issued a temporary ruling this week that blocks David Donatelli from starting his new job at HP until the veteran executive sorts out a disagreement over a “non-compete” provision in his employment agreement with EMC.
Donatelli surprised some analysts when he resigned last week from his job as president of the storage vendor’s biggest division, and was named HP’s new executive vice president for enterprise servers, storage and networking. HP had touted the hire as part of a broader effort to knit together the company’s various offerings for big data centers.
The announcement came at a time when other big tech companies are looking to expand their share of the data center market.
HP said its own networking business, known as ProCurve, would fall under Donatelli’s purview, along with HP’s servers and storage business.
But the tech industry can be a small world: HP’s storage products compete with EMC’s. And EMC has a history of working with Cisco Systems, which is expanding its networking business to include servers and other products.
EMC maintains that Donatelli’s contract bars him from going to work for a competitor for 12 months after leaving EMC. Donatelli sued EMC last week in a California court, in a pre-emptive effort to challenge EMC’s assertion. EMC then filed its own lawsuit in Massachusetts, where the company is based.
A hearing in California is scheduled for later this month. Stay tuned.
Sun keeping quiet: It’s been nearly three weeks since the surprise announcement that Oracle will buy Sun Microsystems, and Sun hasn’t had a lot to say.
Sun announced its most recent quarterly earnings in a press release last week and posted some financial documents online. But it canceled the traditional earnings conference call, in which analysts and others usually hear from top executives. Also breaking with tradition, the press release included no comments from Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz.
Schwartz, who is normally quite voluble in his corporate blog, hasn’t posted anything there since March 18. The company has made some new product announcements, and Sun bloggers have continued to talk about projects and technical matters, but they have been told to avoid commenting on the sale to Oracle.
It appears the two companies are walking a fine line — trying to reassure customers and employees without running afoul of legal restrictions or discussing details of a deal that is not yet final.
In a recent letter to customers and business partners, Oracle President Charles Phillips gave a very broad description of his company’s plans to sell a range of hardware and software in the future. In a transcript filed with the SEC on Thursday, CEO Larry Ellison reiterated those plans and dismissed speculation that Oracle might sell off Sun’s hardware business. And top executives held a town hall meeting with Sun employees, although some who attended said few specifics emerged.
The gist seems to be summed up in a FAQ for Sun employees, which the company filed with the SEC. The statement says the two companies are forming a “joint integration planning team” to confront such issues as how Sun’s products and employees will fit into Oracle’s organization.
Until then, the statement said each company will carry on business as usual.
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