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Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is threatening to drag new HP CEO Leo Apotheker into court next week in an industrial espionage trial.
The trial centers on the theft of stolen customer materials from Oracle that covered at least some of the period when Apotheker was CEO of SAP.
Responding to comments from HP Chairman Ray Lane claiming that Oracle has never offered any evidence that Apotheker was involved in the theft of stolen Oracle material, Ellison said Oracle will provide that evidence next week during the damages portion of the Oracle-SAP industrial espionage trial.
"A few weeks ago I accused HP's new CEO, Leo Apotheker, of overseeing an industrial espionage scheme centering on the repeated theft of massive amounts of Oracle's software" Ellison's statement read. "A major portion of this theft occurred while Mr. Apotheker was CEO of SAP. HP's Chairman, Ray Lane, immediately came to Mr. Apotheker's defense by writing a letter stating, 'Oracle has been litigating this case for years and has never offered any evidence that Mr. Apotheker was involved.' Well, that's what we are planning to do during the trial that starts next Monday."
Ellison said the only way that Apotheker will not be supboenead to testify in the trial is if the new HP CEO does not show up at HP's Palo Alto, Calif. headquarters. The showdown couldn't come at a worse time for Apotheker, who officially starts his new job as the CEO of HP on Monday.
"If HP keeps Leo Apotheker far from HP headquarters we cannot subpoena him to testify at that trial," the statement read. "I don't think Ray Lane wants to risk Leo Apotheker testifying under oath as to why he allowed the theft of Oracle property to continue for 8 months after he was made sole CEO of SAP. I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that HP's new Chairman, Mr. Lane, will keep HP's new CEO, Mr. Apotheker, far, far away from the Courthouse until this trial is over."
