Oracle failed to terminate contract with HP through court

On February 3, 2012, the California District Superior Court of the United States rejected Oracle’s lawsuit against HP, regarding it as false. Recall that with the help of this lawsuit, Oracle tried to get rid of its obligations to HP to develop software for the Itanium platform. We are pleased to express satisfaction with such an outcome litigation.

In a statement, HP reports that the company “is eagerly awaiting the release of facts proving that the announcement of stopping the development of software for servers with Itanium processors, made by Oracle in March 2011, was part of a thoughtful business strategy aimed at increasing server sales Sun at the expense of artificially reducing sales of more productive servers on the Itanium platform. This confirms once again that Oracle has violated its contractual obligations to HP and is not fulfilling its repeated promises to support our common customers. ”

A summary of the facts and events preceding the trial:

• In March 2011, Oracle announced the imminent development of its products for hardware with Itanium processors.
• Customers HP and other vendors who have already invested a lot of manpower and resources in the construction of infrastructure, were outraged. Unclear situation with the update of existing and release of new versions of Oracle products has jeopardized their business or activities within the public sector.
• Against this background, Oracle launched an active campaign to force customers of its software to switch to the hardware of the same vendor (manufactured by Sun, previously acquired).
• Such a strategy, as it turned out, was clearly reflected in the internal documents of Oracle. The company used its dominant position in the database market as an instrument of pressure on customers.
• To implement the strategy, Oracle used various means, including illegal pricing, prohibiting the publication of benchmark results on HP servers using Oracle software, as well as incorrect processing of HP customer support calls.
• Representatives of the company distributed to customers knowingly false information about the plans for the development of the Itanium platform so that customers decide to change the hardware platform.
• To force the change of equipment, we also used the limitation of technical support for servers manufactured by HP and other vendors. Another pressure tool was the denial of access to patch packages for Oracle software tools containing errors.

The reaction of customers and equipment manufacturers turned out to be quite expected:

• Oracle's strategy was called anti-consumer and self-serving.
• Changing the platform to continue working with software from Oracle is not possible for a large number of organizations, especially in the public sector and health care.
• The reasoning behind Oracle’s decision to end support for the Itanium platform is absolutely unconvincing, and there are essentially no arguments: the manufacturer of Intel processors and the manufacturer of server hardware HP have publicly pledged to support the platform for at least 10 years to come.
• The Itanium-based contract development relationship between HP and Intel is completely transparent and well known. They can not be a reason for accusations of unfair advertising or fraud.

The conclusion from what happened is obvious and fits into a couple of simple sentences. Oracle violates its contractual obligations to HP and its customers. Instead of filing false claims, she should reconsider her behavior in the market.