Comment by flatulent1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by flatulent1 | Hacker News Reader

It is a bit funny seeing one Oracle exec who had an affair (Charles E. Phillips Jr) getting replaced by another. Someone could base a movie on them.

It's good to see Mr Hurd back at work so soon. He seems a good match and well qualified. Besides seeing how Oracle does under him, it'll be interesting to see what influence he has on decisions affecting the industry in general.

In particular, some wonder how much Android will be affected by the JAVA case against Google. Others wonder about the future of other open-source projects such as VirtualBox (development appears to be continuing)

If they need another exec with a colorful past, there's always former Broadcom CEO Henry Nicholas. He was accused of putting drugs in others' drinks; an airline pilot complained of pot smoke so thick that a gas mask was needed.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/06/he...

Steve Jobs used LSD when he was younger and turned out pretty well. Sun had other that did the same. I heard one former Sun exec in a PBS interview talking about that experimental period, trying to expand the mind. Basically he said drugs failed at that, and the expanding experience came later... the internet

There's a little bit of related history at this link that mentions Suns' fifth employee:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-grim/read-the-never-befor...

I know this is the internet and all, but it would be prudent not to cast aspersions about executives having an "affair" when the fact was that Hurd left for other reasons.

Uh,

Hurd left because of unethical behavior which many would interpret as evidence he was having an affair.

HP didn't have overwhelming evidence of an affair (and an act isn't necessarily grounds for termination) but the world already a preponderance of evidence. I don't think Mark Hurd is going to be starting any civil cases on the subject any time soon.

Not quite.

Hurd left because of a sexual harassment case where a contractor (Jodie Fisher) claimed that she stopped getting work after turning down his sexual advances. According to both parties, no affair existed.

So while there is good evidence that he wanted an affair, there is no evidence he had one.

"This year, Mr. Phillips acknowledged having an affair after a woman he had been seeing put up a Web site and billboards detailing his extramarital relationship."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/technology/07oracle.html?_...

... The original post, btw, simply said Hurd had an affair, neither it nor I say he was fired for having an affair...

Mr. Phillips != Mr. Hurd -- the question is whether Hurd had an affair, not Phillips.

oracle.morality++;

"the company's investigation of the claim also revealed Hurd's attempts to conceal payments he made to her" (quote from another article at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/07/... )

Beyond things that a company would approve of, just what were these payments for? (...something beyond payments for sex, or payments not to talk about having had sex?)

Note that payments "to her" is different than saying payments "for meals" mentioned elsewhere. (obviously those would go to the restaurant, not her)

If it would make anyone feel better, there are affairs that are non sexual.

The WSJ had this on the amount: "One person familiar with the matter said the questionable expense reports totaled no more than around $20,000."

A bit much for dinner? Do HP stockholders have a right to know what that was spent on?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870330970457541...

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