The disgraced former Hewlett-Packard boss Mark Hurd, who was ousted on Friday in a sexual harassment and expenses scandal, has found a heavyweight ally in the billionaire Oracle software tycoon Larry Ellison who has blasted the computer company over its "cowardly" handling of the affair.
Ellison, a revered figure in Silicon Valley, who is America's third richest man, waded into a deepening furore over Hurd's departure today with a furious email to the New York Times in which he stands up for his friend and occasional tennis opponent.
"The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago," wrote Ellison. "That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them."
In a drama that has enthralled the US business world, Hurd abruptly quit as chief executive of HP last week following an investigation into his relationship with a former actress, Jodie Fisher, who had been hired by the company as a marketing consultant to make appearances at corporate events.
Fisher accused the HP boss of sexual harassment. Although HP's board found no violation of the company's harassment policy, Hurd was accused of making improper expense claims to the tune of some $20,000 to cover meals, travel and, in one case, an appearance fee for the 50-year-old actress, whose film credits include restricted R-rated films such as Intimate Obsession and Body of Influence 2.
Friends of Hurd argue that he has been harshly treated by a board of directors scared by even a whiff of scandal. Ellison said: "In losing Mark Hurd, the HP board failed to act in the best interests of HP's employees, shareholders, customers and partners."
The software billionaire said Hurd had spent five years doing a "brilliant job" restoring HP to its "former greatness" after "a long list of failed CEOs". Ellison took particular exception to the fact that HP's board went public with the unproven allegation of sexual harassment against Hurd, claiming, without naming a source, that this was the subject of a narrow 6-to-4 vote by directors.
"Publishing known false sexual harassment claims is not good corporate governance; it's cowardly corporate governance," said Ellison, who pointed out that a slump in HP's shares has already cost investors more than $10bn. "Those six directors caused HP to lose a nearly irreplaceable CEO."
He added that it was "not credible" to accuse Hurd of fiddling expenses: "Mark Hurd, like most other CEOs, does not fill out his own expense reports, so even if errors were made, Mark didn't make them. What the expense fraud claims do reveal is an HP board desperately grasping at straws in trying to publicly explain the unexplainable; how a false sexual harassment claim and some petty expense report errors led to the loss of one of Silicon Valley's best and most respected leaders."
Hurd has won plaudits in the investment community for streamlining HP, which was a sprawling business struggling to swallow a takeover of rival Compaq when he took the top job. HP's shares almost doubled during Hurd's tenure and the company made another large acquisition in services firm EDS.