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HP Sues Hurd For Joining Oracle
CWmike writes "Hewlett-Packard is reported to be suing former CEO Mark Hurd, who was named co-president of rival Oracle on Monday. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, and has now posted the full text of the suit on Google Docs. Among other things, it says, '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.'"
Such as, maybe, giving Larry her phone number?
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
That's all.
Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
cause the guys at the top are the ones making that decision, and would never dream of putting something like that in that may one day limit their ability to make millions.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
That's pretty much it.
Unless there's a signed "non-compete" document from Hurd, HP will just have to live with their mess up.
I'd be surprised if Mr. Hurd signed such a document.
Just my $0.02
-JJS
That's right, HP, kick Oracle where it hurds!
Be relentless!
The lawsuit isn't about Oracle competing with HP, it's about disclosing HP trade secrets. At this stage I doubt HP has any real secrets left though as their development seems quite stale.
From your link:
"Non-compete agreements are enforceable for partnerships and when someone is selling their ownership interest in a company. A related topic is the protection of trade secrets. A company can prevent the use of its trade secrets, but it cannot prevent fair competition"
Looks like they are trying to use the "trade secrets" protection part.
You are correct in that it should be interesting to see how it plays out.
Just my $0.02.
-JJS
Also, they are demanding immediate injunctive relief... which court is available that can read this complaint today. With courts slammed and Congress unable to approve judges (or do much of anything useful), where will anyone be able to provide "immediate" injunctive relief?
Lastly, Hurd hasn't done anything yet. They are finding him guilty without any proof, before the fact, and without due process. Boy is HP a bunch of brats... "we can't have him and you can't either".
At least they didn't try to have him killed.
I'm just surprised Oracle wanted him. From what I've heard about Hurd, he can be unstable, and isn't quite ready for daily use.
You are given the parachute in return for the non-compete clause. Therefore you are being compensated for not just getting fired and going to the competition and spilling your guts. The grace period lets your knowledge specific to the company go out of date.
Unless there's a signed "non-compete" document from Hurd, HP will just have to live with their mess up.
In California, non-compete agreements have been disallowed by the courts...
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
Secret 1: Outsource everything.
Secret 2: Employees are interchangeable.
Secret 3: Good enough is probably too expensive.
Secret 4: There is still at least enough good will for the HP name to milk another five years.
The ______ Agenda
No, they don't apply at all. Any non-compete clauses in a contract are invalidated by California law.
That's true in the general case, but California law still allows a company to sue to prevent use of its trade secrets, which is the angle HP is taking here.
...and decides to go to Oracle, is that considering 'following the Hurd?"
Don't fear the penguins
Personally I am rooting on Hurd because that will help many of the little people too with these same clauses. I think that if they do not want him working for a set period of time, then then need to pay him for that time based on current salary (same as any other worker whom they do not want to work for the competition). That would make things fair for both sides.
At least they didn't try to have him killed.
How would we know? A comically small cardboard cutout of a piano falling on his head? A swath of underpaid Chinese martial artists that surround him, then are summarily laid off? Someone tries to shoot him with an HP branded Smith & Wesson, with "Innovate" written on the bullets, but nobody can get the bullets to move?
The ______ Agenda
So Hurd can never leave California to visit an Oracle office elsewhere without being slapped with a lawsuit in another jurisdiction. Sounds like HP will enjoy that :-)
They're alleging
They cite California Civil Code 3426.2(a), so no, contracts are not automatically invalidated - it depends on the terms of employment.
It's quite simple - his new job at Oracle puts him in a position where he will be violating HP trade secrets. He simply cannot work as the CEO of any large US IT company without attracting such a lawsuit.
This could have been different in that it may have been required to get his bonus. That sort of thing is almost always legal, since it is regular contract law. You come work for me, we have a normal employment agreement. However I say "You know, there's a lot of stuff you are privy to that I don't want getting out. So if I lay you off, I'll give you a big bonus, but in turn for that you can't go work for my competitors, you can't write an expose book, and so on."
Now of course you don't have to do agree to that, but if you don't, you don't get the bonus.
So while California may well say "You can't have a non-compete on normal employment," a termination bonus is a different thing.
Especially since he signed a separation agreement that paid him $12,224,693.00 in return for keeping those secrets, and agreeing not to accept employment that would conflict. He can now kiss that money good-bye, as the lawyers will eat it up.
California is a Right to Work State, you want to sue to prevent someone from having a job? Then move to Washington or New York.
Here in California we recognize the need for a person to earn a living plying their skill is more important than your need to treat people like property.
But hey, since those lawyers are salaried, better to use them to harass Mr. Sexual Harassment to put those payroll dollars to work am I right?
Hurd has overall knowledge but non-specific. His job was to direct the goals of the company. It wasn't to design chips, OSes, etc. His knowledge is about the direction the company was going, how to set up their priorities, how to spend and grow. He didn't have specific knowledge about the coding of projects or the design of hardware, just the direction those would take.
Oracle and Ellison are not really competitors to HP in the vast majority of areas where Oracle generates revenue (Oracle is primarily a relational database company selling to big companies). HP's competing OS is a non-starter. Even Oracle's acquisition of products from Sun wouldn't be such a major threat in any market to HP. As far as business models go Oracle's and HP's are probably quite different as they target different markets for the most part, as Oracle doesn't make printers nor desktop PCs and what they do compete with is probably limited to server markets where HP just doesn't have that much moxy.
If they try to limit Hurd's overall knowledge exposure they'll loose, they'll have to overcome years of legal history where one CEO goes to work for another company. And, this is HP's burden. HP must prove what they claim.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
He got over $12 million as a separation payment in which he specifically reaffirmed that he would not work for a competitor for a year. Oracle names HP as a major competitor in the 10k SEC filing. Both he and Oracle are properly being sued already under section 3426 of the California Civil Code - this would just be additional lawsuits.
Except, he's in California. Non-competes aren't worth the paper they're written on here, and for good reason. HP has absolutely no right to tell him what to do after he leaves their employ.
HP's Board may be pretend to be aggrieved, but there is little they can do. California basically bans non-compete clauses. Some lawyers will get rich, and it will all be settled out of sight.
It would be more convincing if HP weren't such d@mned hypocrits: they complain of corporate secret leakage, yet they hired in Carly Fiorio as CEO from Lucent to get networking going and Mark Furd himself from NCR. Both "closer" in market terms to HP than Oracle is.
I think the HP Bored is just unhappy Mark bounced back quickly and very vexed the market agrees with him (Oracle's stock when up, HP down). Arrogant SOBs. I'd be embarrassed to work for them. Or buy their products.
So what? HP's own lawsuit notes that HP's "world headquarters and principal place of business" are in California, and that Hurd was employed in Santa Clara, California, the suit is filed in a California court, and seeks remedies under California law.
He's not competing. He's moved to a technology company. :-)