Larry Ellison, the founder and CEO of Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), is one of the most powerful and wealthy executives in the world. He has also set himself up to be judge, jury, and hangman in the matter of whether Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) chief Léo Apotheker has broken the law.
As a legal battle between his company and rival SAP (NYSE: SAP) nears, Ellison accused Apotheker, a former SAP chief executive, of being aware that the German company was stealing Oracle intellectual property. The trial will start early in November and Oracle will seek $2 billion in damages. “A major portion of this theft occurred while Mr. Apotheker was CEO of SAP,” Ellison said in a statement to the San Jose Mercury News, where he also challenged HP to make Apotheker available as a witness in the case.
HP, as might be expected, refuted that charges.
Ellison, America’s Cup winner and all-around master of mayhem, is one of the most clever large company CEOs when it comes to rattling and attacking the competition. He excoriated the HP board when it fired CEO Mark Hurd and then hired Hurd as his president over the objections of HP. Ellison managed to keep Hurd and the HP board withdrew into a protective but not terribly safe cocoon.
Ellison has no plan to shade the results of the trial one way or the other. He knows certainly that a court will take his comments as nonsense. But, what he has effectively done is begin a process of trying Apotheker in the press and in the eyes of HP customers. His statements may lean toward slander, but their effect on HP may be profound. A wounded chief executive is the last thing that HP needs as it attempts to emerge from the Hurd scandal.
There is no other large company CEO in America, and perhaps the world, who has the gall that Ellison does or the ability to take step outside the circumscribed role of chief executive. He does not care though. He is Larry Ellison and dissembling is part of his hand of cards. He is willing to play them. The rich and powerful can afford to have guts and Ellison proves that as often as he likes.
Dazing the enemy often works.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks