Oracle to continue HP Itanium server support

Software giant Oracle will continue to support HP's Itanium-based servers after it lost a bitter lawsuit.

The firm had argued that it was not obliged to make new versions of database software compatible with the servers.

Oracle spokesperson Deborah Hellinger declined comment when asked if the company still intended to appeal the court's ruling. Oracle said on August 1, the day of the ruling, said that it planned to appeal.

The high-stakes dispute between the two companies, which have been partners for the past 30 years and have about 140,000 common customers, came after the former friends became intense rivals following Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems.

Oracle's purchase meant that the company was now into the server hardware field, in which it previously partnered with HP.

Oracle had argued that there had been no contract with HP that required it to continue to support HP's servers based on Intel's Itanium chips and that it had made the decision as Itanium was approaching the end of its life.

But Santa Clara Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled that there had been a contract.

Oracle software on HP's Itanium computers will be released about the same time as Oracle software on IBM's Power systems, Oracle said in a statement.