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Hurd, who was dismissed from HP last month following a sexual harassment investigation, was also named to Oracle's board of directors. He will report to chief executive Larry Ellison and serve as co-president alongside Safra Catz, its former chief financial officer.

"Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle," Ellison said. "There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark. Oracle's future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise."

As CEO of HP, Hurd found new ways to extend its profitability by cutting costs and pursuing $20 billion worth of acquisitions that diversified its business beyond selling printer ink, which was formerly the bulk of HP's profits. During Hurd's five-year tenure, HP became the world's largest PC and server manufacturer, as well as the largest technology company by revenue, making $114 billion in its last fiscal year.

Hurd's time at HP, however, was derailed in early August, following allegations of sexual harassment by a former marketing contractor.

A subsequent investigation by the company's board found that Hurd was not in violation of the its sexual harassment policy, but did violate its code of business conduct in filing inaccurate expense reports.

By the time the investigation had run its course, Hurd's relationship with HP's board of directors deteriorated to the point where both sides decided that it was best to part ways.

Ellison, a close friend of Hurd's, has spoken out against the scandal, taking the opportunity to scoop up the top technology executive, who will mostly likely spearhead a similar transformation of Oracle that he managed at his five years at HP.

The two companies have worked together for over 25 years, ensuring that their products were compatible with each other's. But now Oracle, already the top seller of database software, is now competing directly with HP in the server business, one of its most profitable services. Last year, it spent $7.4 billion to buy out Sun Microsystems, in addition to $40 billion on acquisitions in the business software market.