Hewlett-Packard is filing a lawsuit to stop former CEO Mark Hurd from joining rival Oracle. It is a civil complaint against Hurd himself, according to the HP Blog.
The complaint was filed Tuesday in Santa Clara Superior Court in San Jose. It comes a day after Oracle hired Hurd to help lead the database software maker as it tries to muscle in on more of Hewlett-Packard Co.' turf. His title was president.
The suit centered around a confidentiality provision of Hurd's exit agreement.
HP issued the following statement:
"Mark Hurd agreed to and signed agreements designed to protect HP's trade secrets and confidential information. HP intends to enforce those agreements."
Both Hurd and Oracle declined immediate comment.
You can read the complaint for yourself at this link. It begins:
"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"), 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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Similar lawsuits have been filed back in the day when Microsoft and Google would trade employees. The issue was working for a competitor while still getting paid in a buyout deal.
HP's biggest competitor had always been Sun Microsystems, which is now owned by Oracle.
