HP Suing Former CEO Mark Hurd

Now that was fast! Wow, I guess HP don’t mess around when it comes to lawsuits.

“Despite being paid millions of dollars in cash, stock and stock options in exchange for Hurd’s agreements to protect HP’s trade secrets and confidential information during his employment and following his departure from his positions at HP as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President, HP is informed and believes and thereon alleges that Hurd has put HP’s most valuable trade secrets and confidential information in peril. Hurd accepted positions with Oracle Corporation (“Oracle&#8221, a competitor of HP, yesterday as its President and as a member of its Board of Directors. In his new positions, Hurd will be in a situation in which he cannot perform his duties for Oracle without necessarily using and disclosing HP’s trade secrets and confidential information to others.”

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HP = Highly Pissed

I agree with HP here. He has intimate knowledge of HP and even if he does not disclose it to others he is in a position to use knowledge he has of HP against them.

Fump MH and HP.

didn't see that coming

the guy is a douchebag anyway, he performed his magic by stomping on his employees, most of them will tell you that he pretty well gutted the company.

With what company should Mark Hurd be employed? Because he has valuable knowledge of HP, does this mean he can be permabanned from getting a job? Ever?

Cerulean said:

With what company should Mark Hurd be employed? Because he has valuable knowledge of HP, does this mean he can be permabanned from getting a job? Ever?

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Seeing as how they paid him $40-45 million (and this being AFTER he was caught falsifying submitted financial expense reports to hide mistress related costs) specifically to make him reaffirm his commitment to not share trade secrets with competitors - I think HP has a legitimate reason to be upset here.

Particularly since Oracle is not exactly just some random small competitor but rather a competitor that could cause serious damage to HP if they know what HP has already planned out over the next couple of years.

I'm very surprised that a reputable company brought him on in any capacity after the circumstances of his departure from HP. WTF, he files fraudulent expense reports, gets a golden parachute (which in all likelyhood includes non-compete clauses), then signs on with competitor? This guy is an ethical disaster.

Cerulean,

There are thousands of companies he can work for that don't directly compete with HP. His options are not that limited (with the exception that his is limited because there are only so many positions available that are of such a high level). He received MILLIONS of dollars for the explicit purpose of NOT competing or disclosing HP's secrets. This POS clearly thinks he doesn't have to play by anyone's rules. This isn't Joe Shmoe that got laid off and is having a hard time finding a job in this economy. When somebody who makes more money in six months than you'll ever see in your lifietime, still isn't satisfied and needs to file fraudulent expense reports to pay for his mistress, that sort of says something about his character. In my opinion, he SHOULD be perma-banned from getting a new job (at least any job of this sort)

Lucky for him, Oracle will probably pay whatever damages he gets (if any) and be happy to have all that insider info. I'm not surprised Oracle brought him on to get his knowledge, but it disgusts me that he got placed as the President and Member of the board. This is one of the most clear demonstrations of distinct divisions of the "have's" and the "have not's". The Elite's are just untouchable it seems. If I filed a fraudulent expense report, I would be fired, lose my licenses, have to pay restitution and potentially serve jailtime. I would never again be allowed to work in my line of work. This guy gets shit-tons of money and moves to his next CEO position within a month or 2.

Seems fair.

Seems there are some pretty pissed off people at Mark Hurd: http://fuckyoumarkhurd.com/

The guys scum! What does that say about the company that has recruited him as their President? And what about the business culture in general that not only tolerates, but rewards people like Mark Hurd? I wish Oracles shares would plummet, but that wouldn't be fare on the people really work for a living and need stocks to perform well for their pensions.

Nothing to see here.

Just standard operating procedure whenever a high level executive goes to work for a competitor or company in the same general industry.

California is an "at-will" work state, so Hurd can work anywhere he wants after he has ended employment with HP... so a company's only recourse is to sue him for taking company secrets with him. But they generally wait a while after the person has been employed with the other company first... it seems like HP has jumped the gun on this one.

Simple solution: HP continues to pay his salary for him to sit at home and do nothing... for the next 20 years...

I was thinking the same thing. Did not think a CA company, which Oracle is, has non-compete issues. I'm pretty sure HP does not want to open that bucket of worms.

Wow, alot of misinformed hate around here. Ouch. Like was previously said, California has laws specifically for situations like this. And you all assume you know the details of the "non-compete" agreement you said he "signed". Is there like any way to know exactly what was signed at his resignation?

I would think Mark obviously knows what he signed and so does Oracle for procuring him like that. This is just a wait and see situation right now. Don't shoot your loads yet rookies...

this guy is a major **** but I dont feel sorry for HP for giving him a golden parachute

Cerulean said:

With what company should Mark Hurd be employed? Because he has valuable knowledge of HP, does this mean he can be permabanned from getting a job? Ever?

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yes, in a competing position. they didn't pay him an ungodly amount of money to leave and go to the competition. they paid him that to just go away. If I were HP I would be pissed too.

XamediX said:

Wow, alot of misinformed hate around here. Ouch. Like was previously said, California has laws specifically for situations like this. And you all assume you know the details of the "non-compete" agreement you said he "signed". Is there like any way to know exactly what was signed at his resignation?

I would think Mark obviously knows what he signed and so does Oracle for procuring him like that. This is just a wait and see situation right now. Don't shoot your loads yet rookies...

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and Ca laws are only a small part of this. and any corporation will pretty well have it in writing about not helping their competitors, esp after you buy they off.

XamediX said:

Wow, alot of misinformed hate around here. Ouch. Like was previously said, California has laws specifically for situations like this. And you all assume you know the details of the "non-compete" agreement you said he "signed". Is there like any way to know exactly what was signed at his resignation?

I would think Mark obviously knows what he signed and so does Oracle for procuring him like that. This is just a wait and see situation right now. Don't shoot your loads yet rookies...

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It's not the non-compete that is the problem. It's the confidentiality agreement he signed with HP. Like I mentioned before even if he doesn't share any information he has about HP to anybody in Oracle it's the fact that he will be in a position to use confidential HP information for the benefit of Oracle against HP that is at issue.

XamediX said:

Wow, alot of misinformed hate around here. Ouch. Like was previously said, California has laws specifically for situations like this. And you all assume you know the details of the "non-compete" agreement you said he "signed". Is there like any way to know exactly what was signed at his resignation?

I would think Mark obviously knows what he signed and so does Oracle for procuring him like that. This is just a wait and see situation right now. Don't shoot your loads yet rookies...

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I dont see how he will NOT be able to use HP info while performing the exact same duties at their competitor. I am pretty sure federal law protects trade secrets and trumps and at-will work state.

Hey, Hurd, your you are filthy rich, and have been for some time, sit back, relax, buy an island, enjoy the rest of you life.
Unless pissing people off and landing in court is our idea of enjoyment.

The $1 more mentality gets me sometimes.

GORANKAR said:

Hey, Hurd, your you are filthy rich, and have been for some time, sit back, relax, buy an island, enjoy the rest of you life.
Unless pissing people off and landing in court is our idea of enjoyment.

The $1 more mentality gets me sometimes.

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I doubt its the money right know. people like that like their power I think

XamediX said:

Wow, alot of misinformed hate around here. Ouch. Like was previously said, California has laws specifically for situations like this. And you all assume you know the details of the "non-compete" agreement you said he "signed". Is there like any way to know exactly what was signed at his resignation?

I would think Mark obviously knows what he signed and so does Oracle for procuring him like that. This is just a wait and see situation right now. Don't shoot your loads yet rookies...

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As a 15 year veteran, in my line of work, I have seen and reviewed this situation play out 40 or so times and I am very familiar with what generally happens when high level employees are let go. Therefore it is an extremely well educated guess as to what took place at the end of his employment, because I have never seen a high level employee, receive a package like this with no strings attached. The details of the non disclosure agreement are not important, and the fact that HP is suing is all the proof I need to know that something like that exists.

I never said there was anything that actually legally prevents him from taking this position. As I said before, I am sure Oracle is willing to payout on his behalf to get whatever trade secrets they think he has. So he is taken care of either way and Oracle gets what they want and with HP suing potentially has to pay some more. Evidently this was a gamble worth taking by Oracle.

What I am upset about is the ethics this guy and the fact that he's not being made an example of. I'm sure if one of HP's middle manager's was offered a $40 bargain to upgrade to first class and decided to take it a business trip he'd be fired for abusing his expense report. Yet this guy get's a mega payout for using the corporate card to pay for a mistress and get's shown the door with a truck full of cash and drives it right over to his next position. Something's just not right here. Oracle should be ashamed of themselves (I know they are not though.)

HPs board has notoriously been vile and full of corruption since Carly was in charge, it's part of the reason she left before she was tarred and feathered. I remember going back to the early 2000s when they all had private investigators following each other around trying to find dirt on each other to get them voted out or whatnot. Larry Ellerson was right in everything he said about them.

Cerulean said:

With what company should Mark Hurd be employed? Because he has valuable knowledge of HP, does this mean he can be permabanned from getting a job? Ever?

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I'm thinking Xe Services or maybe Haliburton, if only to make everybody there look ethical by comparison.