Oracle Taps Mark Hurd; Shares Higher

Updated stock prices

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Oracle(ORCL) named former Hewlett-Packard (HP) CEO Mark Hurd as co-president, a month after Hurd quit HP because of a sexual harassment investigation.

Oracle shares were trading up 6.7%, or $1.52, to $24.45, whle HP shares were off 0.6%, or 25 cents, to $40.09.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison came to Hurd's defense when the sexual harassment allegations first surfaced. In a press release Monday, he continued his praise for Hurd.

"Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle," Ellison said in a statement. "There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark. Oracle's future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise. Mark pioneered the integration of hardware with software when Teradata was a part of NCR."

Hurd will serve as a member of Oracle's board and will report to Ellison.

Oracle also said Charles Phillips, who had been with the company for seven years, resigned his position as co-president. Safra Catz is staying at Oracle as a co-president.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel

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