Another one of the biggest news stories we covered heavily here at SiliconANGLE this year was the bare-knuckled brawl between ERP mega-players Oracle and SAP.

It was a gift that kept on giving throughout the year, and one that got a little bit of sex appeal in the later stages of the story, thanks to the loose connection the lawsuit had to the Mark Hurd Pornstar Scandal.

[box type=”info”]Happy Holidays! The SiliconANGLE news and editorial team came to a group decision: we wanted a few days off for the holidays. Since very little in the way of tech news is going to be happening over the next few days (and you’ll still be looking for content to voraciously consume), we’d round out the biggest stories of the year in an ongoing series called “What You Missed Living Under Your Rock During 2010.” For the rest of the series, go here. Want more detail about the stories discussed here?  Don’t forget click through on all the links.

Happy Holidays from SiliconANGLE!

Editor-in-Chief Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins[/box]

In all truthfulness, the story of the battle between Oracle and SAP has been ongoing for many years – and was initially filed back in 2007, as Cherr Aira Quintana first reported at SiliconANGLE back in October.

Not long after we sat down in #theCube with SAP’s co-CEO Bill McDermott, HP announced they were hiring out of SAP’s stable for the CEO position Leo Apotheker.

Kristen Nicole had the story:

Apotheker served at SAP as CEO for over 20 years, leading it to become a globally recognized brand. With a range of experience sectors in R&D and a background in technology platforms, he will become quite a resource for HP in its latest strategy towards growth in new areas.

“I’m surprised that they went with an outsider, but I can understand why they did it,” says SiliconANGLE editor John Furrier.  “HP is clearly sending a message to the marketplace that they are focused on execution and innovation. His R&D background and transformative experience in his resume speaks to the problem HP has with their innovation image.

Wall Street showed their surprise and uncertainty at the hire as well. As our Kristina Farrah rerported, HP shares slid by 3.1% on the news.

As HP shares started to recover and things started to look up for HP, Oracle’s Larry Ellison was there to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt. In the light of the Mark Hurd hiring by Oracle, the lawsuit stopped being about the facts of the case, and started being more about Larry Ellison’s relentless desire to make all “enemies” of Mark Hurd look bad. Ellison was out for blood.

The attacks began in earnest in late October – not simply aimed at SAP, or even Apotheker, but at HP as well.

SiliconANGLE’s Quintana noted Ellison’s quips:

“Leo knew all about the stealing. In fact, Leo did not stop the stealing until seven months after he became CEO. Why so long? We’d like to know. Ray Lane and the rest of the HP Board do not want anyone to know. That’s the new HP Way with Ray in charge and Leo on the run. It’s time to change the HP tagline from ‘Invent’ to ‘Steal’.”

SAP tried, but failed, to have Ellison and others silenced, as Kit Dotson noted.

Bad news for SAP, Hewlett-Packard, its new CEO Léo Apotheker and anyone else tarred and feathered in Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s recent fusillade of anti-SAP broadsides. A federal judge has denied a request for a gag order in the increasingly contentious legal battle between Oracle and SAP.

How much did SAP owe Oracle for the misadventures of their subsidiary? Was it $4 Billion, as Oracle claimed? Was SAP actually in the wrong by their own admission? Was Larry Ellison over-dramatizing the claims just to get more negative press out there for Mark Hurd’s corporate enemies?

These questions were never quite settled to most of our satisfaction, but mostly because despite filed subpoenas to appear as a witness in court, no one seemed to be able to put their finger on exactly where HP’s new CEO was. All questions were overshadowed by “Where in the world is Leo?”

SiliconANGLE’s Isha Suri had the story:

Ever since the HP’s new CEO Leo Apotheker went missingfrom the media, Oracle has hired private investigators to find him out. After ouster of Mark Hurd from the position of CEO, Leo took over the position last week and since then he has not made a single official appearance.

Oracle’s investigators spotted Leo in Texas two weeks ago, but could not find him since last week. Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison said that Leo is hiding from Oracle because he knew about the SAP’s theft.

Ellison and his team have left a standing impression on the SAP case, and it’s going in a downward direction for SAP and HP alike.  We’re barely a week in, and already the melodrama has reached a boiling point.

With the goofiness and drama going on, it might have been easy to miss SAP’s apology for the theft. Madalena David caught it, and reported on it mid-November, saying:

Under cross examination by Oracle attorney David Boies in the trial to determine damages for the theft of Oracle IP by SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow, McDermott admitted and apologized for the data theft.

To be fair, McDermott did offer some testimony supportive of SAP, noting that TomorrowNow didn’t generate a lot of software sales. “Not only was it not a big driver of software sales, it wasn’t a very successful,” he said.

Madalena continued to report on the lawsuit on into late November, when the whole debacle came to a close, not with SAP owing the whopping $4 Billion Oracle’s Larry Ellison claimed, but with a tamer (but still not insubstantial) $1.6 Billion owed.

As 2010 draws to a close, we bid goodbye to the SAP-Oracle mega-battle, but console ourselves with the fact that Oracle will always continue to be a source of amusement due to the ongoing legal problems of their Co-President Mark Hurd and flamboyant antics of their CEO Larry Ellison.

[Editor’s Note: Photo credits to Michael Sean Wright, Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins and Thomas Hawke. –mrh]