Tech giants Hewlett-Packard and Oracle will reportedly face off in court for opening statements in a bitter lawsuit over Itanium-based servers.

To rewind: Oracle decided to stop developing software to be used with HP’s Itanium-based processor last year. On June 8, HP sent a letter to Oracle Co-President and Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz charting demands to respect Oracle's obligations to HP and to Itanium.

It is reportedly said that Oracle’s decision has shocked HP whose majority of servers were  based on the Itanium processor.

Even, Microsoft and Red Hat have also ended their support for Itanium.

Trusted insider informed our team that top personalities from both Oracle and HP - such as Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison, President Mark Hurd and HP board member Ann Livermore will participate the latest hearing. 

HP defended its move by saying that it is doing so to protect the investments of some 140,000 shared Oracle-HP customers.

It is being said that Oracle’s decision to end support for Itanium was influenced by Mark Hurd joining Oracle and its acquisition of Sun Microsystems.