Some background: Wookey was an Oracle exec credited with making some sense out of Oracle’s Fusion apps plan. Wookey split from Oracle just before the annual Oracle OpenWorld lovefest in the fall of 2007. About a year later he surfaced at SAP, causing stir since SAP was one of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s favorite punching bags.

Now, less than a month before SAP Sapphire 2011, Wookey and another SAP exec David Meyer, have reportedly left the ERP giant. Meyer confirms his own departure on his Meyerwork blog here. His Twitter account tagline reads: “Futurist, exploring opportumities post SAP.”

But back to HP. When he was still co-CEO at SAP, Leo Apotheker publicly welcomed Wookey into the fold. Apotheker has since taken the helm at HP and seems very intent on competing with Oracle in enterprise software. Wookey could be very helpful in that quest to make HP a software power.

On a related topic, there’ve been rumors on and off for years about HP buying SAP, skuttlebutt that has only been fueled by HP’s hiring of Apotheker. (SAP did not renew Apotheker’s contract so technically he was a free agent when the HP board came ‘a calling. But conspiracy theorists might surmise that was all part for the plan.)

Verbal bouquets that have been tossed back and forth between the two companies since Apotheker started at HP. And those mutual love fests started tongues wagging anew about an HP-SAP combination . Face it, stranger things have happened, and Oracle’s voracious appetite  for acquisitions may end up forcing a deal.

So, stay tuned….

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Apotheker was named HP’s CEO in October after HP went through a very public and very messy divorce from former star CEO Mark Hurd. Then,  Hurd surfaced as co-president of Oracle, an erstwhile HP partner and HP hired Apotheker, a former CEO of SAP.  SAP, which leads the ERP market, is the arch nemesis of Oracle and all sorts of soap opera-level skullduggery ensued, most revolving around public threats by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison subpoena Apotheker in a lawsuit Oracle lodged against SAP.

Leo, however, was nowhere to be found. And HP partners worried about the silence from HP’s new top dog. Mark Hurd, for all his faults, had been very hands-on with HP partners. Now, Apotheker can try to assuage any doubts partners might have about the channel-friendliness of his HP.

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Oracle had sought up to $3 billion while SAP, which admitted wrongdoing, said the true damages amount should lie between $28 million and $41 million.

The case led to a series of dramatic kabuki moments. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison publicly warned former  SAP CEO Leo Apotheker  not to show his face  in the U.S. or be hauled into court. This was awkward, to say the least, since Apotheker started his new gig as Hewlett-Packard  CEO on Nov. 1.  Oracle hired private detectives to seek out the elusive Leo, who apparently was not found in time to testify but did show up on HP’s earnings call this week.

Oracle’s moves seemed geared at embarassing not just SAP, but HP, which  Oracle seems to have anointed its newest archrival. Oracle also hired disgraced former HP CEO Mark Hurd as co-president.

In a statement emailed last night to reporters, Oracle’s other co-president, Safra Catz, weighed in.

“For more than three years, SAP stole thousands of copies of Oracle software and then resold that software and related services to Oracle’s own customers. Right before the trial began, SAP admitted its guilt and liability; then the trial made it clear that SAPs most senior executives were aware of the illegal activity from the very beginning. As a result, a United States Federal Court has ordered SAP to pay Oracle $1.3 billion. This is the largest amount ever awarded for software piracy.”

Now with Oracle hyping its new integrated data center hardware full blast, watch for its anti-HP rhetoric  to get even more entertaining. With this legal win under its belt, Oracle continues its rein as the world’s scariest software company.

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He ain’t in the Oakland courtroom where Oracle CEO Larry Ellison would love to see him.

He’s not at Hewlett-Packard HQ, where Oracle’s tried to serve him with a subpoena.

But lookee here! Leo’s in Japan! At least according to Reuters. If Oracle’s private eyes had bothered to read the Japanese press, they could have saved themselves some wear and tear.

Meanwhile, questions keep swirling about what, exactly HP’s clown car of a board was thinking when it brought Apotheker, ousted from SAP, aboard as top dog.

This Oracle vs. SAP/HP imboglio is, to steal a phrase from a Vanity Fair article summarizing the street fight between Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and the Sulzberger-led New York Times, like the Corleones picking on the Royal Tenenbaums.

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Reuters reports that Oracle has hired private investigators to find the elusive Leo.  HP and its lawfirm have refused to accept Oracle’s subpoena for Apotheker, according to the story. Apotheker ‘s official start date at HP was November 1.

Oracle is suing SAP, where Apotheker had been CEO, over theft of trade secrets.

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Tonight’s statement from Oracle corporate PR vis-a-vis the SAP lawsuit:

“Hewlett Packard has refused to accept service of a subpoena requiring Mr. Apotheker to testify about his role in SAP’s illegal conduct. Mr. Apotheker started work for HP on Monday, but it now appears that the HP Board of Directors has decided to keep him away from HP’s headquarters and outside the court’s jurisdiction. We will continue to try to serve him.”

Oracle served Apotheker because he was CEO of SAP for part of the time during which SAP downloaded proprietary Oracle information.

One of last week’s emails (attributable to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison) warned that something like this just might happen.

“I don’t think [HP chairman] Ray Lane wants to risk Leo Apotheker testifying under oath as to why he allowed the theft of Oracle’s property to continue for 8 months after he was made sole CEO of SAP. I hope I’m wrong, but my guess is that new HP’s Chairman, Mr. Lane, will keep HP’s new CEO, Mr. Apotheker, far, far away from the Courthouse until this trial is over.”

Far, far away, indeed.

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SOOOO very interesting that SAP has been gushing over Leo Apotheker’s leadership skills,  especially since SAP showed him the door last year. Both HP and SAP have defended Apotheker against Oracle’s charges that he was complicit in industrial espionage. Oracle maintains that while Apotheker was CEO of SAP, he knew about TomorrowNow’s practice of downloading Oracle information using customer accounts and let it continue for months.

Conspiracy theorists surmise that SAP, which could end up forking over big bucks to Oracle,  sees HP as a potential white knight buyer in case things really go south.  At the very least, HP could do a lot more software deals with SAP, at least according to SAP CEO Bill McDermott.

SearchOracle.com’s Mark Fontecchio has a great take on this Oracle-SAP bloodfeud. Leave it to Fontecchio  to find the common thread linking Larry Ellison,  Bill Belichick and Paris Hilton!

Oracle’s already hostile relationship with SAP spilled over to HP after HP hired Apotheker as its new CEO to replace Mark Hurd (who Oracle had already hired as co-president.) That HP would hire a former SAP CEO while also hiring a former Oracle president (Ray Lane) as chairman of the board, was apparently too much for Ellison to bear. To be fair, those hirings really did reek of an HP obsession with Oracle.

The near-nightly emails to reporters from Oracle PR (but attributable to Ellison) have been hugely entertaining.  And, they make some valid points. Still Ellison’s professed outrage about SAP’s industrial espionage seems a big much given Oracle’s history of aggressive competititve intelligence.

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“HP Chairman Ray Lane has taken the position that Leo Apotheker is innocent of wrongdoing because he didn’t know anything about the stealing going on at SAP while Leo was CEO.  The most basic facts of the case show this to be an absurd lie.  Oracle sued SAP for stealing in March of 2007.  Leo became CEO of SAP in April of 2008.  Leo knew all about the stealing.  In fact, Leo did not stop the stealing until 7 months after he became CEO.  Why so long?  We’d like to know.  Ray Lane and the rest of the HP Board do not want anyone to know.  That’s the new HP Way with Ray in charge and Leo on the run.  It’s time to change the HP tagline from ‘Invent’ to ‘Steal’.”

 

It sounds a little personal, no?

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“A few weeks ago I accused HP’s new CEO, Leo Apotheker, of overseeing an industrial espionage scheme centering on the repeated theft of massive amounts Oracle’s software. A major portion of this theft occurred while Mr. Apotheker was CEO of SAP. HP’s Chairman, Ray Lane, immediately came to Mr. Apotheker defense by writing a letter stating, ‘Oracle has been litigating this case for years and has never offered any evidence that Mr. Apotheker was involved.’ Well, that’s what we are planning to do during the trial that starts next Monday.

Unless, Mr. Lane and the rest of the HP Board of Directors decide to keep their new CEO far, far away from HP Headquarters until that trial is over. If HP keeps Leo Apotheker far from HP headquarters we cannot subpoena him to testify at that trial.

I don’t think Ray Lane wants to risk Leo Apotheker testifying under oath as to why he allowed the theft of Oracle’s property to continue for 8 months after he was made sole CEO of SAP. I hope I’m wrong, but my guess is that new HP’s Chairman, Mr. Lane, will keep HP’s new CEO, Mr. Apotheker, far, far away from the Courthouse until this trial is over.”

Some background: Oracle sued SAP three years ago, alleging that a subsidiary (TomorrowNow) engaged in wide-spread trade secret theft–using customers’ access to Oracle upgrades and documentation to download proprietary Oracle information.

Now all of that is playing out in what looks to be a battle royale between Oracle and HP. In August, HP canned its CEO Mark Hurd. Oracle quickly hired him as co-president. HP, then sued Hurd because the new Oracle, with its Sun franchise, is a hardware rival to HP. That suit went away, but then HP hired Leo Apotheker, ex-CEO of Oracle arch-enemy SAP,  as its Hurd replacement. And  it brought on a respected former Oracle board member Ray Lane as chairman of the board. That executive suite move made HP seem a tad, um, obsessed  with Oracle.

And the obsession appears to be reciprocated. Ellison’s PR team sent out the statement late on October 26–Apotheker doesn’t officially join HP until November 1.

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George Fandos, vice president of global data center for Weston’s Comstor Worldwide operation, says the centers are meant to help accelerate adoption of converged data center technologies being advocated and designed by several of the distributor’s key vendor partners, notably Cisco, NetApp, EMC, VMware, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. Solution providers can either visit the center live or access technologies remotely.

“Those with data center practices will be able to go in and debate what is best for their customers. See how technologies coexist with different servers in the converged data center environment,” says Fandos.

Access to the LEAP Center is available to any qualified solution provider who buys through Westcon, according to Fandos. The main intent is to help accelerate adoption of these evolving technologies, both on the part of solution providers and end-user customers, he says.

This is actually the second LEAP center; the first one was opened in Brussels and additional facilities are planning for Singapore and Sydney, according to Fandos.

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