This is what happens when you’re a high-profile job switcher, especially in the gossip-mad tech world. People talk about you. And that’s what happened to Mark Hurd.
Reports surfaced last week that Hurd, who is co-president of Oracle, was on the short list of prospective Dell CEOs from Blacktone Partners, a private equity firm interested in buying Dell. Blackstone, presumably, would need to install its own guy if its bid against the current Dell guy, Michael Dell, wins the day.
Asked about the issue in Japan at a press event, Hurd said: “I’m very happy at Oracle. No interest.”
Mark Hurd in Japan goes on the record on #Dell: “I’m very happy at Oracle. No interest." #oracle http://t.co/pYsKAM9fDK—
deborah hellinger (@dhellinger) March 25, 2013
Of course, that doesn’t mean Blackstone didn’t ask.
The timing must have been awkward for Hurd. Later today, his boss, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and systems guy John Fowler will unveil the latest-and-greatest Oracle server. If you want to sit in, you can register here.
It doesn’t help when a humongous software company is trying to build hardware credibility for there to be rumors about one of your top guys — a hardware guy — jumping ship to another hardware company. Hurd is the former chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard who exited under a cloud in August, 2010. A month later he was snapped up by Ellison as Oracle co-president (with Safra Catz)
First line of Blackstone/Michael Dell meeting: "So, yeah… sorry for calling Mark Hurd before we called you."—
(@danprimack) March 26, 2013
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