Mark Hurd, the former HP CEO who resigned (or got fired) after a scandal that wasn’t really as scandal, is currently in talks with Oracle, where he may assume a top position.

This man, no matter how you see it, is a genius. HP was a failing company with a bad business model. Under his guidance, the company assumed total control of home and small business printers and became the #1 laptop seller as of 2006, and the #1 desktop seller as of 2007.

When Hurd became the CEO, HPQ was trading at around $30, and when he left, it was trading at $47 (with a peak of $54.75 back in April ’10). The stock stock dropped to $37 since Hurd resigned, and is currently trading at around $40, making his resignation probably the most costly ever, with HP losing $14 billion in market capitalization.

I’m skeptical about HP’s future, but I think they’re still doing well, and they will still do well for the next year or so. After that, the new CEO will start driving the company, and who knows in what direction…

Hurd is a personal friend of Larry Ellisson, Oracle’s CEO, who’s probably vouching for him in the Oracle’s board. Oracle, in my opinion, is not doing as well as it was doing back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. It’s not aggressive anymore, and it’s not gaining more market share. This could change with a fresh vision of the company from Hurd. I have to say though that if Hurd joins Oracle, then Oracle employees should be afraid, very afraid…

ORCL is currently trading at $22.92, 19 times EPS. ORCL is very comparable in growth to MSFT and HPQ (peaking in 2000 with a huge drop after the NASDAQ crash, and now trading at more or less half the 2000 peak).