With no love lost between HP and Oracle, we seem to be heading towards another round of belligerence between 2 old competitors. Oracle bought Sun Systems last year and ever since that allowed Oracle an entry into the server market which was hitherto divided between HP and Dell, things are looking increasingly competitive in server space.

So, when HP asked its CEO, Mark Hurd to resign it was Oracle that made all the right noise about Hurd’s credentials and integrity. Now, that Mr. Hurd is off HP and Oracle has announced that he will join Oracle as co-President of the company, HP seems to have suddenly risen to the fact that Mark Hurd could help Oracle in server markets across the world and the fact that he knows too much about HP’s internals will make the situation a worrisome fact for the giant.

Hence, HP did what it thought would be the best option in such a case. It has filed a lawsuit to deprive Mark Hurd of an opportunity to work with Oracle. While it may delay Mark Hurd’s joining, there is no guarantee that HP will be able to do so. The onus to prove that Mark Hurd is privy to confidential information that could help Oracle will lie on HP and to be honest, it is not going to be easy in proving that at all.