Oracle’s CEO is Taking a Leave of Absence for This Reason

Oracle announced on Wednesday that its Chief Executive Mark Hurd, is taking a leave of absence from the company due to health reasons.

Larry Ellison, the company’s founder and chief technology officer, will handle Hurd’s responsibilities along with Safra Catz, the other CEO.

There was no mention of what health issue Hurd is going through or how long he would be gone.

Hurd joined Oracle as president in 2010, after being CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP) for five years.

At the time, Ellison wrote in a letter to the NY Times, “The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn’t come back and saved them.”

“Though we all worked hard together to close the first quarter, I’ve decided that I need to spend time focused on my health,” Hurd, 62, wrote in a message to Oracle employees.

He said the board granted his request for a leave of absence.

“Mark was extremely engaged with the business through the end of our just completed Q1, but now Mark needs to focus on his health,” Catz stated.

The company released its financial results for the first quarter a day early on Wednesday as well.

“We originally planned to hold this call tomorrow,” CEO Catz told analysts. “However, as Mark will be taking a leave of absence for a health-related reason, we felt it made sense to share all of our news at once.”

“Oracle has an extremely capable CEO in Safra Catz and an extraordinarily deep team of executives, many with long tenure at Oracle,” Ellison stated.

For the fiscal first quarter, the company reported a profit of 81 cents a share, excluding certain items, on $9.22 billion in revenue. Earnings for the quarter were inline with estimates but sales failed to meet the $9.29 expected.

Looking ahead, Oracle expects second quarter earnings per share of 87 cents to 89 cents. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected earnings of 91 cents a share, excluding certain items.

The stock fell roughly 5% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after both announcements.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) and have not been compensated for this article.