Wise decision for HP

I think it was a wise decision for HP not to fight this fight, sometimes no matter how morally right you are, fighting the fight to prove your point will only serve to cause you more collateral harm, and i think HP squaring off against Oracle would hurt HP more in the end.s

On another note...

Thinking over this whole situation, the conspiracy theorist in me cant help but think that this whole thing was a carefully crafted and executed plan that was years in the making.

I know it sounds retarded, but just go with me for a minute. Hurd gets hired as HP's chief battle axe, brought in to end a very dark period for HP, to clean up the messes left behind by Carlie (anything goes) Fiorina. Hurd does a good job, as far as shareholders and directors are concerned, steering HP in a positive direction, but he brings with him the carving knife, he cuts HP's departments to the bone, all of them, and as Larry even said, he cut their R&D way too far. So far that its going to take HP years to recover and get back in to the game as an innovator.

All the while Hurd and Ellison are good friends and tennis buddies.

Then one day, almost out of the blue, all hell breaks loose at the top of HP's ivory tower and Hurd resigns. Knowing that HP is quite sensitive about ethics and moral image after Carlie (what are ethics?) Fiorina's reign of terror, they stage this seemingly questionable sexual harassment complaint by a former soft porn star cum IT consultant, whom doesn't make a big deal out of the complaint and quickly settles it behind closed doors with Hurd directly, then expresses sorrow and dismay for his abrupt departure from HP. Hurd meanwhile resigns over discrepancies on expense reports involving the soft porn consultant in the amount of $20,000? seriously $20,000? for a man that makes millions a year + bonuses, $20,000?. Knowing all the while that the board would react harshly to this, Hurd grabs his golden parachute and glides in to the sunset. Weeks later, if that, he turns up as co-president of Oracle, to replace the former co-president who had expressed interest in leaving Oracle some time back, after his own disgraceful episode. its all a little to convenient to me...

Kissy-kissy

HP probably figured this was a fight they couldn't win. So the one-trick pony will now join Oracle, and over the next couple of years we'll see Oracle staff moaning about being laid off.

Hang on a mo, the crystal ball is warming up. The prediction for the future is that IT acquisition company (formerly printer ink ripoff and before that hi-tech company) will buy Oracle in a few years time, and that Hurd's placement there is part of a long term plan. If HP could come up with the cash to buy EDS for $14bn, is it so far-fetched that they could find $30bn for a database company?

Remember, you read it here first. I predicted the winner in last Saturday's donkey gallop, placed my 20/1 bet, and it came in at 20 past 4.

Paris because I mentioned an ass above.