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When Mark Hurd took the CEO spot for Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) in 2005, the board wanted to put an end to the drama. After all, the company's former CEO, Carly Fiorina, was a magnet for controversy. Hurd, on the other hand, was a no-nonsense operator.
Well, over the past month, he appears much different. Of course, the trigger was the resignation over allegations of sexual harassment and false expense reports. Maybe Hurd is the Manchurian CEO?
Now, Hurd has accepted the co-president spot at Oracle (ORCL), an arch rival of HP -- which has already filed a lawsuit for trade secret infringement.
Oh, and Hurd will get richer. If he meets certain targets, he is eligible for a $10 million bonus for 2011. In the meantime, his salary will be $950,000 per year and he will get a juicy option to buy 10 million shares of Oracle. Although, there was no mention about his new expense account.
Normally, such drama would be too much to handle. But Oracle's CEO, Larry Ellison, loves a good fight and thrives on chaos. Consider that he is suing Google (GOOG) over its popular Android operating system. And as for his favorite book, it is the Art of War.
Interestingly enough, Ellison and Hurd have been good friends over the years. So perhaps Hurd's recent actions are to expected. If anything, Ellison realizes that the future of enterprise technology will be a slog, which will require takeovers, layoffs and lawsuits. And so far, it seems Hurd is learning along the way.
Tom Taulli is also the author of several books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the upcoming book, All About Short Selling.
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