HP Sues Former Channel Chief Who Left for Oracle

(Reuters) –
Hewlett-Packard Co (NYSE:HPQ) on Wednesday sued a former high-ranking executive who
had left to join rival Oracle Corp to stop him from sharing hundreds of
documents HP claims he stole from the company.

HP claims Adrian Jones, its
former head of enterprise sales for the Asia region, stole documents and
e-mails on a USB device which contained proprietary and valuable
information about HP’s products and customers.

HP
said in its lawsuit that it was about to fire Jones in February after
an investigation into his relationship with a subordinate and spurious
expense claims. Before any action was taken, Jones resigned and joined
Oracle shortly after.

In the lawsuit, HP demands the return of all documents and calls for damages to be awarded.

HP
and Oracle became intense rivals after Oracle’s purchase of Sun
Microsystems pushed it firmly into the server hardware market, in which
it previously cooperated with HP. Relations soured last year when ousted
HP Chief Executive Mark Hurd joined Oracle. Legal wrangling over Hurd’s
hiring by Oracle are unresolved.

The
case is Hewlett-Packard Co v Adrian M Jones, number 111-CV-198103 in
the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Richard Chang)