HP Responds To Oracle Claim Of Itanium Deception

HP and Oracle have accused each other of deception in the latest twist to their increasingly bitter legal dispute over Oracle’s withdrawal of Itanium support.

Oracle claims that HP made “false and deceptive statements” over the future of Intel’s Itanium chip and that HP and Intel were conspiring to prolong the life of Itanium rather than discontinue it.

Follow the Hurd

However, HP has disputed these claims and in a statement declared, “Today’s filing is another example of Oracle attempting to distract from the undeniable fact that it has breached its contractual commitment to HP and ignored its repeated promises of support to our shared customers.”

HP alleges that Oracle attempted to justify its decision to abandon Itanium by claiming that Intel said it was near an “end of life”, but Intel’s staunch denials have forced Oracle to come up with a new justification.

HP says that Oracle’s real intention was to take away the choice of Itanium from customers and force them to purchase servers from Sun, which was acquired by Oracle for £4.5 billion in 2009.

HP’s legal action began in June when it accused Oracle of breaking a settlement agreed in September last year for it to continue to offer its product suite on HP platforms when it withdrew support for Itanium.

This settlement was reached after a 13 day legal battle after former HP CEO Mark Hurd was appointed by Oracle as president, and HP was keen to ensure that the two companies’ partnership would continue in a manner consistent to the one that existed prior to Hurd’s appointment.

However Oracle has said that it was tricked into signing these long term support deals, alleging that HP knew Intel planned to discontinue the line despite Intel claiming there exists an Itanium roadmap for the next decade.

HP has blamed Oracle’s decision as the cause of a nine percent fall in high-end server sales and is attempting to enlist the support of the European Commission to investigate whether Oracle is using its powerful business position to damage HP’s hardware business.