More than a year has passed since Mark Hurd was forced to leave his position as CEO of HP, because an internal investigation uncovered expense-account irregularities. He has since landed on his feet.  In September 2010, he was named co-president and a member of the board of Oracle Corporation by his close friend and HP business rival Larry Ellison.

Under HP’s new leadership, the company has made some controversial announcements, including the sell-off of its PC and cell phone division and the acquisition of British firm Autonomy for a reported $10 billion. Shareholders were not pleased with the decision, as evidenced by HP’s 20 percent drop in stock prices last Friday. Suddenly, the company lost $12.3 billion in shareholder value.

The question now is what will happen if HP’s stock prices continue to decline. According to one unnamed source, Oracle could launch a bid to take over HP.

“If that stock keeps dropping, I think it is inevitable,” the source said. If such a move passes an anti-trust investigation and is approved, two things are inevitable: Mark Hurd will once again have a say in HP’s future, and the new Oracle behemoth will be better positioned to take on its real rival IBM.

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