HP CEO Reportedly Hiding from Oracle Subpoena

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Let's play hide and seek with Leo!

Former HP CEO Mark Hurd is probably quite eager to forget his past and focus on his new job at Oracle and it seems HP's new CEO, Leo Apotheker, couldn't be more eager to do the same. However, Leo is also apparently in hiding, which I imagine would get in the way of being a CEO.

Reuters reports that Leo Apotheker, formerly co-CEO of SAP, reported for his first day at HP a week ago but has yet to make a peep about his new role. There's been no press release from HP welcoming him to the family and we haven't seen a single interview or statement from Apotheker himself about his plans for the company. According to Reuters, Apotheker is hiding from Oracle, which is waiting to serve him a subpoena based on his actions as co-chief of SAP.

When Leo was first taken on, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison wasted no time in revealing what he thought of the hire. Ellison recalled the details of an ongoing lawsuit (filed in 2007) that accuses SAP-owned software maintenance company TomorrowNow of pirating customers' copies of Oracle software. SAP has admitted copyright and computer violations but is arguing that Oracle's request for $1 billion in damages is excessive. Leo was CEO while a lot of this was going on and it seems Oracle is eager to hear from the man in charge.

A Reuters' source says Oracle has hired private investigators to try and track the new HP boss down. The company reportedly subpoenaed Apotheker but HP has refused to accept it, claiming Oracle was trying to harass its new CEO. Reuters' source went on to say that Apotheker's lawyers at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher also refused to accept the subpoena, adding that if Apotheker is overseas, Oracle will be unable to serve him until he returns to California.

However, conflicting information comes via AllThingsD, which cites its own source in reporting that Oracle hasn't hired any private investigators. Instead, Oracle is employing process servers, which are agents charged with delivering subpoenas to their intended recipient. Process servers can't serve anyone with a subpoena if they're more than 100 miles from the location of the trial, so though they might be looking, they're not exactly looking very far.

Source: Reuters (via Business Insider) and All Things D

Jane McEntegart
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Aintry
    LOL!
    Reply
  • Aintry
    It's 10 P.M.. Do you know where your CEO is?
    Reply
  • hellwig
    Does he have a Facebook page? Aren't some jurisdictions now serving people online? Maybe he plays WoW or has an Xbox Live account, who knows. Think outside the box people.
    Reply
  • turbotong
    Aintry:
    Lol. I work for HP and no, I don't know where my CEO is.
    Reply
  • Instead of having corporations spend millions on lawyers and fight it out in the courts we have them spend millions on mercenaries and fight it out on some deserted island. That way it makes it actually entertaining to hear about.
    Reply
  • jossrik
    It seems to me like it's getting to the point where the only listing on my resume for multi-million dollar CEO is going to be

    Job 1: Burned company to the ground
    Job 2: Burned company to the ground

    Hobbies include breaking the law in a fashion that will get me charged after people realize I was breaking the law, and losing millions of company money to break the laws.

    I'm qualified to be a CEO because I was a CEO before and some one else typed this resume for me.
    Reply
  • rrobstur
    otacon72Hurd is going to go from Oracle to HP to prison. Why on earth HP hired this fruitcake is beyond me. hurd is not the C.E.O. being subpoenaed its Leo Apotheker
    Reply
  • dEAne
    Did they try their cloud based server?
    Reply
  • svdb
    What a pile of crap. Larry Ellison sues only because he thinks he can. Men like him generally have a small penis and need to compensate. The obnoxious bastard isn't after Apotheker, he’s after HP. A good way to divert attention from him in the middle of screwing up the Sun/Java take over. Or is it because Hurd is being investigated about bribes he was involved in? Or perhaps because a strong HP-SAP partnership (merger?) makes Larry piss in his pants. Enough reasons for an all out Oracle Smoke Screen.
    If Apotheker is hiding (why would he, Ellison's lawsuit is BS), it can only be in Paris, France, because that's where he's been living for the last 15 years. Doh!
    Whatever. He can run HP from the French offices in Les Ulis near Paris if he wants to. All major HP offices have interconnected Halo rooms, so taking a plane to attend important meetings has become less than necessary.
    Ellison really should take a crap every now and then. It would prevent him from being so full of it.
    Apotheker is fluent in five languages, English, French, Dutch, German and Hebrew. Larry is fluent only in one: BS!
    Reply
  • sudeshc
    enough of this crap...
    Reply