Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) managed to bump up against just about everyone in the industry this year, not the least of which was Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ). In perhaps the most theatrical jousting match of 2010, Oracle hired former HP CEO Mark Hurd as co-president shortly after Hurd left HP amid an ethics controversy involving a harassment allegation and questionable expense reporting. 

Not long after that, HP named former Oracle president Ray Lane to its board of directors and replaced Hurd with former SAP CEO Léo Apotheker. By naming a software maven as its chief executive, HP better positioned itself to go up against Oracle directly, pundits predicted, maybe even paving the way for a purchase of SAP down the road.  

The bizarre IT triangle got even weirder once Oracle and SAP faced off in the courtroom this fall over a software theft that SAP admitted a subsidiary was guilty of. SAP had offered to pay Oracle $40 million to get over it, but Oracle wanted closer to $4 billion. One of the wackier trial highlights was Oracle's struggle to bring an MIA Apotheker (now, remember, working for HP) to the stand. "We are trying real hard to find him and he's trying real hard not to let us find him," said David Boies, Oracle's chief attorney at the trial.