Hurd confirmed as Oracle president

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Oracle has confirmed it has hired Mark Hurd, the former chief executive of HP who resigned amid scandal, as president.

The job offer was rumoured yesterday, but Oracle has confirmed Hurd, a close friend of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, will replace Charles Phillips, who has resigned.

Hurd resigned from HP after a probe into sexual harassment allegations uncovered inaccuracies in expenses filings. HP said at the time that he filed inaccurate expense reports related to Jodie Fisher, a marketing contractor who worked for Hurd’s office from 2007 through 2009.

HP said the expense reports were meant to hide a “close personal relationship” with Fisher, a sometime actress who has appeared in television shows and movies.

Ellison had slammed HP’s decision to oust Hurd, calling the actions of HP’s board “cowardly” and moved quickly to secure his services for Oracle.

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

Oracle, the world’s third largest software maker, competes with HP and SAP and looks to be targeting IBM. “I believe Oracle’s strategy of combining software with hardware will enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise servers and storage,” Hurd said in the announcement.

In June, Oracle reported a quarterly profit that exceeded projections and is keen to take advantage of a recovering economy, with the possibility of more acquisitions.

“Oracle is clearly capitalising on this opportunity to get someone strong from a top hardware company,” said Forrester analyst James Staten. “In terms of how this helps Oracle against IBM, there is reason to be optimistic.”

Still, there will now be two strong personalities at the top, which could lead to conflict.

“So Mark Hurd will have someone who’s very hands-on sitting above him,” Staten said. “But we have to assume they’ll get along.”

Revolving doors

Phillips was co-president alongside Safra Catz, who remains in her role, and had at one time been seen as a possible successor to Ellison.

A former star software analyst at Morgan Stanley, Phillips was put on the spot earlier this year when huge billboards depicting the married software executive with YaVaughnie Wilkins, his former mistress, appeared in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco.

The billboards with the words “You are my soulmate forever!” appeared to be an attempt by Wilkins to embarrass Phillips after their relationship ended and he returned to his wife.

He was also publicly corrected by his company after he said Oracle could “easily” spend about double the $35 billion it had spent over the past five years.

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