According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, former Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd, who was forced out of the company after sexual harassment charges were brought against him, is in talks to join Oracle (ORCL), the world's largest enterprise software company. Hurd and Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison know each other well, and Ellison publicly criticized the HP board for ousting Hurd for minor expense-report violations after the sex-harassment charges were dropped.


The report says Ellison will remain CEO of Oracle, but the roles of Oracle's two co-presidents, Safra Catz and Charles Phillips, could be effected if Hurd were to come aboard.

Oracle moved into direct competition with HP in the server business when it bought Sun Microsystems. The Journal didn't provide any other data.