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Hewlett Packard claims that Oracle's threat to drag new HP CEO Leo Apotheker into court next week is nothing more than "an effort to harass him and interfere with his duties and responsibilities as HP's CEO."
Ellison wants to put Apotheker, the former CEO of software giant SAP, on the witness stand in the penalty phase of an industrial espionage trial in which SAP has admitted stealing Oracle software.
In fact, Ellison says that if Apotheker, who officially starts his job as HP's new CEO on Monday, shows up at HP's Palo Alto,Calif headquarters next week then the new HP CEO will be spending at least some of his time answering questions in the Oracle SAP trial.
HP, for its part, won't talk about whether Apotheker will be at HP headquarters next week. "We don’t discuss the schedules or specific whereabouts of our executives," says an HP spokesperson.
“Oracle had ample opportunity to question Leo during his sworn deposition in October 2008 and chose not to include him as a trial witness until he was named CEO of HP," said HP. "Given Leo’s limited knowledge of and role in the matter, Oracle’s last-minute effort to require him to appear live at trial is no more than an effort to harass him and interfere with his duties and responsibilities as HP’s CEO.”
