HP Tells Hurd “Hell No You Can’t Go”

September 7, 2010 by James Hicks in Tech with 0 Comments

Labor Day weekend was good form Mark Hurd. His good friend and buddy Larry Ellison announced that Hurd would replace Charles Phillips, who has resigned, as Oracle‘s new president (actually co-president, alongside Safra Catz, who remains in her role).

“Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do even better at Oracle,” said Ellison in a statement on Monday.

So that was the weekend. Today, Tuesday is a whole different story.

HP is firing back saying Hell No Hurd can’t go to Oracle – something along the lines of a violation of confidentiality provision in his contract.

When he left HP, Hurd signed a 24 month non-compete policy. Part of the terms of that policy was that Hurd would not reveal any tech industry secrets, especially to a HP competitor. In exchange for those terms and that signature Hurd walked out the door with a few dollars in his bank account, $40 million in severance to be exact.