Oracle Hires Former HP CEO Mark Hurd

In a rather surprising but perhaps not completely unexpected move, Oracle has hired former HP CEO Mark Hurd as co-president. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has voiced his support for the former chief executive and criticized the HP board's decision in the past. He is also a closer personal friend of Hurd.

"Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle," Oracle CEO and biggest stock holder Larry Ellison said. "There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark."

"Oracle's future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise. Mark pioneered the integration of hardware with software when Teradata was a part of NCR," he added.

Even without Ellison's personal feelings towards Hurd, the former HP exec makes a good fit for Oracle. The software giant has acquired Sun making it the first time it has gotten into the hardware business.

HP is the biggest hardware maker on the planet and its current position is largely attributed to Hurd's leadership. Oracle couldn't have managed to get someone more experienced in the field.

Hurd also has experience in the data warehouse business, having led NCR, the biggest player on the market. Oracle provides data warehouse solutions based on HP hardware, but with Sun under its belt it may start offering its own complete products.

"I believe Oracle's strategy of combining software with hardware will enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise servers and storage," Mark Hurd said.

"Exadata is just the beginning. We have some exciting new systems we are going to announce later this month at Oracle OpenWorld. I'm excited to be a part of the most innovative technology team in the IT industry," he added.