"She has the unenviable job of cleaning out the stables." Larry Ellison: Somewhere inside one of his many luxurious residences, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison may be rubbing his hands together and cackling with glee at HP's announcement. There's famously little love lost between the two companies, especially after the ugly legal battle over Oracle's ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stop porting its software to the Itanium-based chips used in HP's high-end servers. But there's also history between Oracle and Ellison regarding Autonomy and its founder, Mike Lynch. Last year, Oracle claimed that Lynch had shopped his company to Oracle before the HP deal, but Oracle rejected it on grounds Autonomy was overvalued. Lynch denied approaching Oracle, prompting Oracle to issue a statement calling Lynch a liar. Autonomy's competitors: The bad publicity around Autonomy may lead potential customers to seek less turbulent waters.