HP drops suit against Mark Hurd for joining Oracle

It takes two weeks to get a divorce at Reno, Nevada, but it took less than that for technology giants Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Oracle to come to a settlement over ousted HP CEO, Mark Hurd joining Oracle, after HP decided to withdraw its lawsuit yesterday.

The settlement between the two companies comes within two weeks after HP filed a lawsuit against Hurd to block him from taking the post of co president at its rival and business associate claiming that he would break a confidentiality agreement by working for Oracle. (See: Technology giants battle for Mark Hurd as HP sues Oracle)

Although Oracle was not formally named in the suit, HP had alleged that it would be impossible for Hurd not to disclose its trade secrets and confidential information in the course of his work with Oracle.

However in a filing with the US Securities Exchange Commission yesterday, HP said it had altered its separation agreement with Hurd, where Hurd agreed to forego about half the compensation owed to him in two sets of stock options.

Hurd agreed to give up his rights to the 330,177 performance-based restricted stock units and to the 15,853 time-based restricted stock units, both valued at around $14 million at current market prices.

Despite waiving $14 million as compensation, Hurd is still entitled to a severance payment of $12.22 million from HP.