Oracle Must Pay HPE $3 Billion to End Itanium Support

Oracle must pay HPE $3 billion in damages, the jury has ruled in a lawsuit. Hewlett Packard Enterprise won the lawsuit against Oracle for stopping Itanium support back in 2012.

Now that the decision on compensation has also been made, Oracle will appeal against both decisions, the group has informed Reuters. Hewlett Packard Enterprise expressed delight at the amount of damages and stated that Oracle had “clearly committed a breach of contract.” HPE demanded $3 billion, which has been fully allocated.

Oracle and, previously, HP have been at odds for years. In 2010, upon the departure of HP CEO Mark Hurd to Oracle, Oracle promised that the company would continue to develop software for Itanium server CPUs. Oracle suddenly announced in 2011 that support for Intel’s Itanium CPUs was being discontinued. Microsoft and Red Hat have done this before.

HP was the driving force behind Itanium alongside Intel, but sales plummeted after partners turned their backs on the platform. HP subsequently claimed that it had suffered significant damage as a result of Oracle’s departure. Oracle’s promise was a contract and the company has kept to that agreement, a judge ruled in 2012. Oracle argued that the Itanium processors were already end-of-life. Intel has not released any new Itanium processors since late 2012.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise was spun off from HP at the end of 2015.