Oracle hires ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd

Hurd, a close friend of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison will replace Charles Phillips, who has resigned, Oracle said last night.

Phillips also hit the headlines earlier this year for his personal life after his former mistress apparently posted huge billboard pictures of the pair of them together in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco after he ditched her and returned to his wife.

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

Hurd resigned from HP on Aug. 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.

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 IBM and SAP.

In June, the company reported a quarterly profit that exceeded Wall Street projections and a 14 percent climb in sales of new software, signaling the tech spending recovery is on track as businesses shell out on big-ticket items again.

Phillips, along with Oracle's other president Safra Catz, had at one time been seen as a possible successor to Ellison.

A former star software analyst at Morgan Stanley, Phillips was put on the spot earlier this year when huge billboards depicting the married software executive with YaVaughnie Wilkins, his former mistress, appeared in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco.

The billboards with the words "You are my soulmate forever!" appeared to be an attempt by Wilkins to embarrass Phillips after their relationship ended and he returned to his wife.

He was also publicly corrected by his company after he said Oracle could "easily" spend about double the $35 billion it had spent over the past five years. That prompted a company spokeswoman to issue a statement saying the company did not have a five-year M&A budget.

Ellison said in Monday's statement that Phillips had approached him last December "and expressed his desire to transition out of the company".

Ellison said in the statement he asked him to stay on through the integration of Sun Microsystems. Oracle bought computer maker Sun in 2009 in a deal worth more than $7 billion.