After Mark Hurd resigned as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, many wondered who would step in to take his place, and how the changes would affect HP. Hurd, on the other hand, has been seeking out his next gig, and it could be as high profile as his last.

Reports are emerging that Hurd is in talks with Oracle, where he would join the company as a top executive. Not too many details beyond this have been revealed, so it’s uncertain what Hurd’s role at Oracle would be.

The likelihood of Hurd taking the reigns at Oracle is small–founder and current CEO Larry Ellison has been a major part of the company’s branding for several decades now. Hurd’s experience at HP, however, could bring some level of competitive advantage for Oracle, which is competing with HP in various ways. The Wall Street Journal points out the differences and similarities between HP and Oracle, writing,

“If Mr. Hurd lands at Oracle, he would join a company that has increasingly been stepping on some of H-P’s turf. Oracle, which makes enterprise software, is almost as profitable as H-P—earning $6.1 billion in its most recent fiscal year compared with $7.7 billion for H-P—but has only about one quarter the revenue and one third the employees.

“The company has expanded its portfolio of software products through a string of acquisitions in recent years. In January, the Redwood Shores, Calif., company finalized its $7.4 billion purchase of hardware maker Sun Microsystems Inc., moving it into the server and storage-systems business for the first time.”

The mention of virtualization trends is important here, as they’ve been dictating the directions many corporations have considered in the past few years. Hurd’s experience with HP in this regard could be beneficial to Oracle moving forward.