Oracle accuses HP of false advertising over Itanium

ENTERPRISE VENDOR Oracle has accused HP of false advertising in order to sell Itanium servers.

Oracle revised its lawsuit against HP claiming the firm "made false and deceptive statements" to Oracle and the public. Those statements regarding the future of Intel's Itanium chip, according to Oracle, were used to induce Oracle to continue developing software for the chip.

Oracle's latest accusations came on the back of its claim that HP had made Intel sign a contract to develop Itanium processors for a certain period of time. HP later admitted there was a development contract between the two companies, though HP wouldn't say when it will expire.

HP has maintained that Oracle's decision to stop developing for Intel's IA64 architecture was a cynical ploy to get customers to buy its own Sun servers. HP's Michael Thacker told Bloomberg, "Oracle is in breach of its contractual commitments to HP, and it has failed to honor its promises to customers." Thacker accused Oracle of "making up claims against HP".

Oracle's claim of false advertising regarding the future of Itanium is a curious claim given its knowledge of a development contract between HP and Intel. Such a contract should have given Itanium customers such as Oracle a sense of security that Itanium would be around despite its flagging sales.

At this point Oracle's lawsuit looks more like buyer's remorse than anything else. Clearly Itanium sales did not ramp up as HP, Intel and Oracle had expected. With the three firms signing contracts, they had to dedicate resources in order to develop hardware and software for a chip that few wanted, consuming development resources for very little gain. µ