Report: Former HP Enterprise Exec Donatelli Rejoins Ex-Boss Hurd At Oracle

Dave Donatelli, former head of Hewlett-Packard's enterprise hardware business, has left the company and reportedly rejoined his old boss Mark Hurd at Oracle.

Donatelli is an executive vice president in Oracle's hardware division and reports directly to Hurd, Business Insider reported Monday.

A Hewlett-Packard spokesman confirmed to CRN Tuesday that Donatelli has left the company, but didn't say when he left. An Oracle spokeswoman declined comment.

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Donatelli joined HP in 2009 after a 22-year run at EMC. He was head of HP's enterprise hardware business until August 2013, when CEO Meg Whitman reassigned him to a role that focused on identifying early-stage startups for potential investments.

Some HP partners credit Donatelli with helping the vendor beat out Dell to acquire storage vendor 3PAR in 2010 after an extended bidding war. However, Donatelli wasn't known for always having partners' best interests at heart, two HP partners told CRN.

"Dave is an example of the ex-EMC and Sun Microsystems people HP brought in several years ago to change the culture. Those changes weren't always for the better, though," one longtime HP partner told CRN.

Donatelli's move would be just the latest of several former HP executives' to Oracle, a list that includes Hurd, former channel executives Tom LaRocca and Adrian Jones, and former HP enterprise executive Rich Geraffo.

"From a partner point of view, HP has a much more partner friendly channel program than Oracle, so I think the trend of bringing more HP executives into the sales management organization is likely a good thing for the Oracle's channel partners," Seth Feeley, vice president of sales at Cintra, a New York-based Oracle partner, told CRN.

Hiring Donatelli was a coup for HP, which had been dealing with EMC's poaching several key executives. But Donatelli's start date at HP was delayed for about a month after EMC sued him for violating the terms of his noncompete agreement. Donatelli countersued to get his agreement nullified.

As part of the case settlement, a court ruled that Donatelli could not work in HP's storage business for a 12-month period.

PUBLISHED MARCH 31, 2015