
H-P Sues Hurd After Oracle Appointment - mechanician
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704358904575477870066918884.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEADNewsCollection
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lionhearted
To be expected. I love that hiring by Oracle, by the way. When someone gets a
minor disgrace on their record, you have to expect they're going to be trying
extra hard to show that they're deserving of playing in the highest echelons.

Fraud, embezzlement, things like that - no way. But c'mon, lots of CEO's do
minor things wrong (hard drugs, affairs, escorts, saying not-PC things) - I
mean, lots of _people_ have at least one or two things about their life that
they'd get in trouble if it came out in the wrong context. Someone that had
been recently shamed by something like this would be able to get hired below
what they'd normally command and would be likely to work extra hard. Good hire
by Oracle so long as they can handle the PR backlash, which is something Larry
Ellison never seemed to care about anyways.

~~~
poet
Hurd falsified expense reports for personal gain [1]. Not sure what your
definition of fraud is, but that qualifies in my book. I'm not saying I
disagree with Oracle hiring Hurd, but HP's problem with Hurd had nothing to do
with his personal life.

[1]
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870330970457541...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703309704575413663370670900.html)

"[Hurd] submitted inaccurate expense reports that were intended to conceal...
a 'close personal relationship'".

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lionhearted
> Hurd falsified expense reports for personal gain [1]. ... "[Hurd] submitted
> inaccurate expense reports that were intended to conceal... a 'close
> personal relationship'".

Without knowing the details, this sounds to me like a minor indiscretion and
being on the wrong side of politics. The article says - "The amount of money
in question wasn't disclosed." Sounds to me like we're talking about a
rounding error in HP's expenses - a wrong-doing, to be sure, but one that only
makes the ax fall on you when combined with politics.

If I was Oracle I'd do a thorough interview, ask some tough questions about
the event, and ask how he feels about behaving squeaky clean at Oracle. Or
even having him agree to expense auditing - you could break that in a
diplomatic way by saying, "Hey, I want to recruit you, but the board has
misgivings. Would you be comfortable having your expense account audited?" If
he says yes, I'd be cool with having him onboard.

But again, we don't have the numbers, so I'm just guessing about the nature of
it here. I could be dead wrong, in which case I'd change my mind.

~~~
avar
> [... ] how he feels about behaving squeaky clean at Oracle

Alternatively, perhaps Oracle doesn't care about this sort of thing at all.
The money he misappropriated at HP was probably a drop in the ocean compared
to a normal CEO's expense account. Oracle might treat it as such.

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lr
I hope Hurd wins. Not because I like the guy, but because I think non-compete
agreements, like patents, must go down in flames.

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msmith
It sounds HP's suit is based not on a non-compete agreement, but a provision
of his $35M severance package in which he agreed not to disclose trade secrets
or confidential info.

That's the impression I got from the article, anyway. I suppose it wouldn't be
hard to argue that he can work for Oracle without disclosing HP trade secrets.

~~~
oiuytgfrgh
>argue that he can work for Oracle without disclosing HP trade secrets.

Depends, is "treat engineers like crap until they leave - thus reducing costs"
an HP trade secret?

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hga
No, at least not according to James Gosling
(<http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/escaped_from_reality>) and many
others who have left Sun after the acquisition.

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Confusion
The article lacks any kind of interesting content and is badly edited at that.

