{"id":743499,"date":"2013-03-26T10:08:41","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T14:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=624301"},"modified":"2013-03-26T10:08:41","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T14:08:41","slug":"fwiw-mark-hurd-squelches-dell-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/743499","title":{"rendered":"FWIW, Mark Hurd squelches Dell rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is what happens when you’re a high-profile job switcher, especially in the gossip-mad tech world. People talk about you.<\/a> And that’s what happened to Mark Hurd.<\/p>

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<\/a>, Michael Dell, wins the day.<\/p>

Asked about the issue in Japan at a press event, Hurd said:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m very happy at Oracle. No interest.”<\/p>

Mark Hurd in Japan goes on the record on #Dell<\/a>: “I’m very happy at Oracle. No interest." #oracle<\/a> http:\/\/t.co\/pYsKAM9fDK<\/a>—
deborah hellinger (@dhellinger) March 25, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>

Of course, that doesn’t mean Blackstone didn’t ask.<\/p>

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.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>

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<\/a>\u00a0in August, 2010. \u00a0A month later he was\u00a0\u00a0snapped up by Ellison<\/a> as Oracle co-president (with Safra Catz)<\/p>

First line of Blackstone\/Michael Dell meeting: "So, yeah… sorry for calling Mark Hurd before we called you."—
  (@danprimack) March 26, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>
\"\"

<\/a><\/p>

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:<\/strong>
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial<\/a>.<\/p>