Larry lobs insult to HP's Leo

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's tirade against rival Hewlett Packard's (HP) board shows no sign of letting up as he slammed the choice of former SAP chief Leo Apotheker as HP's new front man.

"HP had several good internal candidates...but instead they pick a guy who was recently fired because he did such a bad job of running SAP," Ellison told the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

Ellison said he was "speechless" at the appointment.

Indeed, Apotheker had led SAP through its first round of major job cuts which occurred in January 2009 and stepped down shortly afterwards amid investor dissatisfaction.

An HP spokesperson told the paper that Ellison's comment didn't "deserve the dignity of a response".

HP and Oracle recently settled their dispute over Apotheker's predecessor, Mark Hurd, who was hired by Oracle on September 6 as its new co-president, replacing outgoing Charles Phillips.

Hurd reportedly agreed to modify the terms of his separation agreement and sacrifice millions from his severance package.