HP Sues Oracle

Hewlett-Packard Co. has sued its friend-turned-foe Oracle Corp. in another sign of how badly the relationship between the information technology big shots has frayed.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court, accuses Oracle of behaving illegally in deciding that future versions of its database software won't support a particular line of HP servers.

Those servers use a chip called Itanium that Oracle insists is being phased out, a claim the chip's maker, Intel Corp., denies.

The argument centers on a technical issue that reflects a broader fissure between the companies.

Oracle and its outspoken CEO Larry Ellison are trying to take more turf from longtime partner HP, which is recovering from scandal.

The rivalry ratcheted up last year when Mark Hurd was forced to resign as HP's CEO and wound up working for his friend Ellison as an Oracle co-president.

From: http://ping.fm/fgv3a