You’re Fired

Oracle CEO Angry Hurd Forced Out

Ellison blames HP board for resignation.

CEOs stick together: Oracle CEO Lawrence Ellison denounced Hewlett-Packard’s board of directors for demanding that HP CEO Mark Hurd resign amid allegations of sexual harassment and false expenditure reports. The Oracle chief sent a fiery email to The New York Times, saying the board “just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.” (Ellison and Hurd are friends, and their tech companies have been close partners.) Ellison continued, “In losing Mark Hurd, the H.P. board failed to act in the best interest of H.P.’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners,” and added that the board found the sexual harassment claims to be false. Ellison charged that the board voted 6 to 4 on whether to disclose the allegations, and later decided to make the vote unanimous.