Court Rejects Oracle's Attempt to Use Fraud Claim to Undo Contract With HP

PALO ALTO, CA, Jan 30 (MARKET WIRE) --
HP (NYSE: HPQ) issued the following statement in response to today's
ruling in the ongoing litigation with Oracle relating to the Intel(R)
Itanium(R) platform:

"HP is pleased that the Superior Court of the State of California, Santa
Clara County, has rejected Oracle's attempt to use a fraud claim to undo
its contract with HP. We look forward to seeing the facts made public
that demonstrate how Oracle's March 2011 announcement to no longer
develop software for Itanium servers was part of a calculated business
strategy to drive hardware sales from Itanium to inferior Sun servers.
This further demonstrates the fact that Oracle breached its contractual
commitment to HP and ignored its repeated promises of support to our
shared customers."

Here are the facts:

-- The Santa Clara Court has rejected Oracle's attempt to use a fraud
claim to undo its contract with HP. The rejected fraud claim was
another attempt by Oracle to get out of the contract it entered into
with HP, wherein it committed to continue to offer its product suite
on HP's server platforms.

-- Oracle's internal documents(1) make clear that its March 2011
announcement that it would no longer develop software for Itanium
servers was implemented as part of a business strategy to leverage
Oracle's dominance in database software to try to force Itanium
customers to purchase Sun servers.

-- The tactics employed by Oracle in support of this purpose included
pricing misconduct, withholding of benchmarking scores for HP
servers running Oracle software, and abusing customers on support
issues.

-- Oracle used false statement about Itanium's future viability,
urging its sales teams to create fear, uncertainty and doubt in
the minds of customers about the risks of not migrating off
Itanium.

-- Oracle strong-armed customers into replacing their existing
Itanium servers by limiting support, including bug fixes and
patches for software defects. Customers were left without options
to address bugs and other defects in their Oracle software.

-- Customers have voiced their dissatisfaction, recognizing the
unfairness of Oracle's actions and the utter disregard Oracle was
showing for the best interest of its own customers.(1)

-- A common theme among discovered emails is that customers viewed
Oracle's business strategy to discontinue development on Itanium
as self-serving and anticustomer.

-- For example, one public sector customer highlighted the
significant financial impact that Oracle's decision to not develop
on Itanium would have on cash-strapped government entities and
other public-sector customers who could not afford to switch
platforms at Oracle's whim.

-- With the unsealing of court filings, the public can see the undisputed
facts of Intel's Itanium roadmap clearly showing a long and sustained
future for Itanium. This further undercuts Oracle's rationale for its
decision. Both Intel and HP have committed support for Itanium that
extends through the end of this decade.

-- HP and Intel's contractual business relationship regarding Itanium
development and supply is not a secret. The companies have a contract
for the continued development of Itanium, and have had one since 2004.
This does not provide Oracle with the basis for any claim of fraud or
false advertising.

-- Oracle is in breach of its contractual commitments to HP, and it has
failed to honor its promises to customers. Oracle should be addressing
and rectifying this conduct rather than making up false claims against
HP.

About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a
meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The
world's largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that
spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT
infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP is
available at http://www.hp.com.

(1) "Hewlett-Packard Company's November 22, 2011 Case Management
Conference Statement," Case No.: 1-11-CV-203163, Superior Court of the
State of California for the County of Santa Clara.

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Editorial Contacts

Michael Thacker
HP
+1 650 857 2254
corpmediarelations@hp.com

www.hp.com/go/newsroom

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