Oracle had announced – via press release, without warning HP – that it would discontinue support back in Marck 2011. This would have meant that its ubiquitous database software and business applications would not have worked on HP’s UNIX-based “mission critical” server range, which uses Itanium chips – a significant blow to HP.
The court ruled that this announcement went against an agreement that Oracle co-president Safra Katz and HP’s former enterprise chief Anne Livermore had reached in 2010, pledging their mutual commitment to their shared customers.