HP-Oracle Itanium Chip Trial May Turn on Hurd’s Exit Terms
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Hewlett-Packard Co.’s lawsuit to force Oracle Corp. to continue making software for its servers may turn on two sentences of the computer-maker’s separation agreement with former Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd.
Oracle, six months after Hurd became its co-president in 2010, said it would stop developing software for Intel Corp.’s Itanium chip, a component of high-end Hewlett-Packard servers. Hewlett-Packard, in a trial that started today in state court in San Jose, California, accuses Oracle of violating a portion of Hurd’s agreement describing a “reaffirmation of the Oracle-HP partnership.”