HP was wrong to oust Hurd: Ellison

Oracle Corp Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison said Hewlett-Packard’s board was wrong to force the resignation of CEO Mark Hurd, comparing the move to the firing of Steve Jobs in the 1980s.

In a letter to the New York Times, Ellison said, “The Hewlett Packard (HP) board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”

Hurd left HP last week after a contractor named Jodie Fisher, who helped organise executive events, made a claim of sexual harassment against him. While the board determined that he didn’t violate the harassment policy, it found that he made inaccurate expense reports and concealed a personal relationship with Fisher, a former actress and reality TV contestant.

“In losing Mark Hurd, the HP board failed to act in the best interest of HP’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners,” Ellison, a friend of Hurd, said in the letter. “The HP board admits that it fully investigated the sexual harassment claims against Mark and found them to be utterly false.”

According to Ellison, the board was split 6-to-4 over whether to disclose the sexual-harassment claim. The directors later decided to make the decision unanimous, Ellison said.

Mylene Mangalindan, a spokeswoman for Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard, said the board was unified in seeking Hurd’s resignation for violations of HP’s business-conduct standards.

“As the company stated previously, the board voted unanimously for Mr. Hurd’s resignation,” she said. “And that was the only vote the board took on this issue.”

Karen Tillman, a spokeswoman for Redwood City, California- based Oracle, didn’t immediately respond to a request for a copy of Ellison’s letter.