Computerworld - Oracle Corp. announced Monday night that it has hired former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd to be one of two Oracle co-presidents, according to numerous press reports.
Hurd, who was forced to resign as CEO at HP early last month amid allegations that he sexually harassed a former contractor to the company, will serve as co-president with Safra Catz, according to the Wall Street Journal. HP also announced that Charles Phillips, who had been one of Oracle's co-presidents, is leaving the company.
In addition to serving as co-president, Hurd will also serve on Oracle's board of directors, according to the Journal.
Word that Oracle had been interested in bringing Hurd on board popped up over the Labor Day weekend in the U.S.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, in a statement, praised Hurd, the Journal said. "Mark did a brilliant job at H-P and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle."
Despite numerous reports about the hire, Oracle's Web site offered no information about it as of 9 p.m. ET. It continued to list Phillips as a co-president.
The prospect of Hurd working for Ellison makes sense for Oracle, which acquired Sun Microsystems earlier this year and has battled to return its hardware division to a profit. Hurd was known for making HP leaner and more efficient and its profits increased sharply under his watch.
Hurd resigned suddenly on Aug. 6 amid sexual harassment allegations. The investigation, conducted by outside legal counsel and the company's general counsel and overseen by the board, found that Hurd did not violate HP's sexual harassment policy but he did violate HP's standards of business conduct, the company said.
HP CFO Cathie Lesjak has been serving as interim CEO while a search committee looks for a permanent replacement for Hurd.
Developing story; More to come.
Ken Mingis is Managing Editor, News at Computerworld and also oversees the site's Macintosh Knowledge Center. His e-mail address is kmingis@computerworld.com. You can follow him on Twitter at 
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