Oracle Hires HP CEO

Silicon Valley technology giant Oracle Corp has hired Mark Hurd, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co who resigned amid sexual harassment  scandal, as president. (Reuters)

Hurd, a close friend of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison will replace Charles Phillips, who has resigned, Oracle said in a statement on Monday. Phillips was co-president alongside Safra Catz, who remains in her role.

Mark Hurd - Resigns HP for Sexual Scandal

Ellison had slammed HP’s decision to oust Hurd, calling the actions of HP’s board “cowardly.

Hurd resigned from HP on August 6, after a probe into sexual harassment allegations. HP said at the time that he filed inaccurate expense reports related to Jodie Fisher, a marketing contractor who worked for Hurd’s office from 2007 through 2009.

“Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do even better at Oracle,” said Ellison in a statement on Monday.

Shares of HP are down 13 percent since Hurd’s resignation. Plucked from relative obscurity to head HP, Hurd is credited with resuscitating the technology giant by cutting costs and pursuing ambitious acquisitions.

HP said the expense reports were meant to hide a “close personal relationship” with Fisher, a sometime actress who has appeared in television shows and movies.

Oracle, the world’s third largest software maker, competes with HP as well as with International Business Machines Corp and SAP.

Windows 8 not Vista

Some cool quotes from Microsoft employees about the upcoming Windows OS, currently codenamed Windows 8. Though it does bring up painful memories of what was promised about Vista (the marketing campaign, you may remember, was called “the wow starts now”), Microsoft did partially redeem itself with Windows 7, so we can put some (if not all) trust in what’s said about the next version.

First, John Mangelaars, regional VP of consumer and online at Microsoft EMEA, simply said that Windows 8 will be “mind-blowing.” Doesn’t really reveal much, but OK, we can set our expectations to “unreasonably high” if that’s how Microsoft wants to play this.

Another quote, this time from an unknown employee, tells us a little bit more:

“So what are our plans for this next version…The minimum that folks can take for granted is that the next version will be something completly different from what folks usually expect of Windows – I am simply impressed with the process that Steven has setup to listen to our customers needs and wants and get a team together than can make it happen. To actually bring together dozens and dozens of teams across Microsoft to come up with a vision for Windows.next is a process that is surreal! The themes that have been floated truly reflect what people have been looking for years and it will change the way people think about PCs and the way they use them. It is the future of PCs…”

So besides “mind-blowing”, we can now add “surreal,” “the future of PCs” and “completely different”. I’m not exactly sure I want to enter an altered state of mind upon launching my brand new Windows 8 PC for the first time, but I agree it’s time for something completely different. Because, you know, Windows 7 wasn’t really all that different from Vista…