The central issue is over Oracle deciding to no longer develop the server chip built by Intel, according to media reports.

HP recently sent a firm letter to Oracle, and is awaiting a response. So far, no lawsuits have been filed. The contents of the letter have been kept secret, according to media sources.

Oracle had announced it would stop developing software for itanium-based servers. It claimed the processor is “nearing the end of its life,” reports Bloomberg News.

But HP says such a step would hurt customers and would result in “hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity,” Bloomberg (News - Alert) adds.

“HP believes that Oracle’s March 22 statement to discontinue all future software development on the Itanium platform violates legally binding commitments Oracle has made to HP and the more than 140,000 shared HP-Oracle customers,” an HP spokeswoman told The Register. “Further, we believe that this is an unlawful attempt to force customers from HP Itanium platforms to Oracle’s own platforms.”

“As a result, on June 8, HP made a formal legal demand on Oracle to reverse its decision. HP believes that Oracle is legally obligated to continue to offer its software product suite on the Itanium platform and we will take whatever legal actions are available to us necessary to protect our customers’ best interests and the significant investments they have made,” The Register (News - Alert) added.

HP is believed to be the biggest customer of itanium chips among servers which are used to “run large corporate databases … after jointly developing the chip with Intel,” according to Bloomberg.

Oracle competes with HP in servers after it took over Sun Microsystems and the Sparc chips, Bloomberg adds.

The last time the feud between the two companies got a lot of attention was last year when Oracle CEO Larry Ellison hired former HP CEO Mark Hurd (News - Alert), and Ellison publically criticized how the HP leadership treated Hurd in his forced resignation, reported TMC CEO Rich Tehrani. Hurd is now co-president at Oracle.

HP claims Hurd was responsible for submitting “inaccurate expense reports” and concluded that Hurd’s actions, related to a self-employed consultant, showed “a lack of judgment,” according to a report from TMCnet.

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