By Pete Carey

[excerpt]

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison blasted Hewlett-Packard’s board Monday for ousting Mark Hurd, saying it “just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”

Ellison also lambasted the board for “cowardly corporate political correctness” when it revealed a sexual harassment allegation against Hurd even though its own investigation determined the claim was unfounded.

Ellison’s criticism, made in an e-mail to The New York Times that was obtained by the Mercury News, could add fuel to the discontent of some investors and others who were dismayed to see HP lose the CEO credited with engineering much of the company’s phenomenal success in recent years.

Since the board pushed Hurd out, Ellison noted, stockholders have lost “$10 billion … and my guess (is) it’s going to cost them a lot more.”

The attack on the board by a prominent CEO is unusual, even for freewheeling Silicon Valley, and especially between two companies that, while they compete in some areas, also do lots of business together.

But Ellison said of his close friend Hurd, “I am deeply offended by what just happened to him. If the HP board is offended by my comments … so be it.”

Read more.  See quote below.

The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.  That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn’t come back and saved them.  In losing Mark Hurd, the H.P. board failed to act in the best interest of H.P.’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners.  The H.P. board admits that it fully investigated the sexual harassment claims against Mark and found them to be utterly false.

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