Hasta La Gadget!

[Above, Larry Ellison eats a hot dog, angrily.]

Well, that turned to name calling pretty quickly, didn’t it? Not that it’s a major surprise or anything–after all, this whole HP/Oracle battle has been pretty odd from the get-go. Where to start? Well, there’s Mark Hurd, who jumped ship (or, more likely, was pushed) from HP roughly this time, last month.

The official justification for the exit was “accounting irregularities,” suggesting that Hurd had, more or less, fudged some expense reports. The timing, however, was awfully suspect. The CEO, who had taken over for the controversial Carly Fiorina (declared by some to be the “anti-Steve Jobs”) was the target of a sexual harassment suit. The plaintiff in the suit was Jodie Fisher, an actress who had appeared in such high profile Hollywood blockbusters as Intimate Obsession and Body of Influence 2.

On Hurd’s exit, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told The New York Times,

[T]he HP Board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple Board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn’t come back and saved them. HP had a long list of failed CEOs until they hired Mark who has spent the last five years doing a brilliant job reviving HP to its former greatness.