Enterprise Co $3 billion in damages in a case over HP’s Itanium servers,
an Oracle spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Oracle said it would appeal the verdict. The Itaniuum processor is made by Intel Inc.
Oracle decided to stop developing software for use with HP’s
Itanium-based servers in 2011, saying that Intel made it clear that the
chip was nearing the end of its life and was shifting its focus to its
x86 microprocessor.
But HP said it had an agreement with Oracle that support for Itanium
would continue, without which the equipment using the chip would become
obsolete.
In the first phase of trial in 2012, Santa Clara Superior Court Judge
James Kleinberg ruled that there had been a contract. The jury on
Thursday decided damages.
“HP is gratified by the jury’s verdict, which affirms what HP has
always known and the evidence overwhelmingly showed,” John Schultz,
executive vice president and general counsel of Hewlett Packard
Enterprise, said in an e-mailed statement, saying that Oracle’s decision
to stop the software development “was a clear breach of contract.”
In a statement, Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley said the company
had been providing all its latest software for Itanium servers since
Kleinberg’s decision.
“Now that both trials have concluded, we intend to appeal both today’s ruling and the prior ruling,” Daley said.
