It took Nixon to go to China. And it will take Hewlett-Packard Executive VP Ann Livermore to visit Oracle. Indeed, Livermore is still confirmed as a keynote speaker for Oracle OpenWorld (Sept. 19-23, San Francisco). By showing up at OpenWorld, Livermore could help to cool off mounting tensions between Oracle and HP, The VAR Guy believes. Here’s why.
In case you’ve been off the grid this week, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has threatened to cut off Oracle’s relationship with HP. Ellison made the threat after HP attempted to block former HP CEO Mark Hurd from joining Oracle as co-president.
Welcome to OpenWorld
That’s Act I of the drama. Next up is Act II, when HP Executive VP Ann Livermore is scheduled to deliver an Oracle OpenWorld keynote on Sept. 19. Livermore, ironically, is among the potential candidates to replace Hurd as HP’s CEO.
As of September 8 at 4:21 p.m. eastern (how’s that for precise?), the Oracle OpenWorld website still lists Livermore as a keynote speaker. Also, an HP spokesperson confirmed that Livermore “still plans to attend OpenWorld.” And Oracle’s web site still lists HP as a diamond sponsor for OpenWorld.
Smart moves. Despite all the political posturing between Ellison and HP’s board of directors, the channel needs continued cooperation between HP and Oracle. And Livermore’s role running HP’s enterprise and services business makes her the perfect person to attend OpenWorld, where she can potentially break bread with Ellison.
Annie Get Your Gun?
Still, it could be too soon for a cooling off period. Channel partners shouldn’t panic if Oracle and HP part ways. After all, Cisco cut off its HP channel partnership in February 2010, and since that time HP servers and Cisco networking equipment have still managed to connect to one another. The bottom line: Even when open dialogs fail, open standards can save the day…
But let’s not get ahead of the story. Livermore remains confirmed to attend OpenWorld. The VAR Guy looks forward to sitting in the front row for all the keynotes. Surely, there will be some fireworks…
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