May divorce be with you: IT's most explosive break-ups

We run through the top five tales of love gone wrong. Which one gets your vote as the most memorable split?

We here at ChannelWeb have clearly developed royal wedding fever (although, admittedly, it could be trapped wind). Following yesterday's rundown of the channel's five most enduring marriages, today we run through the industry's most memorably divorces.

Prince William will be well aware of the numerous pitfalls of married life, having seen his father, the Prince of Wales, and his uncle, the Duke of York, both endure royal divorces.

The commoners of the channel are also no stranger to explosive break-ups, and we've come up with a list of the top five most sad, salacious or shocking separations. Which one gets your vote as the most memorable? Have your say by voting in our poll below. You can also still vote on our poll to find the channel's favourite partnership.

These break-ups have been carefully chosen, but do let us know if you think we've missed out any major bust ups by leaving a comment below.

HP and Cisco
When two massive global entities get it on, sparks are liable to fly, and the alliance often burns brightly, but all too briefly - a bit like J-Lo and Puffy, Cashley and Cheryl or Preston and Chantelle. And so it was with two of the IT world's true juggernauts: HP and Cisco. The pair were thick as thieves for a number of years, with former HP CEO Carly Fiorina sitting on the Cisco board as her sales staff were compensated for shifting the networking giant's gear. But when Cisco started making servers and HP spent billions of dollars acquiring networking vendors, the writing was on the wall. Divorce was finalised when Cisco booted HP off its partner programme, and the sniping and one-upmanship continues.

C&W and the channel
As many jilted partners will know, rebuilding trust with a former lover after being unceremoniously dumped by them is a very difficult, if not impossible, challenge to beat. So spare a thought for poor Cable & Wireless (C&W), then, which after a shocking financial performance in 2006 decided to axe hundreds of UK channel partners just like that. But a few years later in 2008, it was back, cap in hand to resellers asking them for a second chance. But will any of them trust C&W ever again? Would you? Maybe they should've come armed with flowers, chocolates and a specially written song.

Mitel and distribution
Relations between networking vendor Mitel and its distribution partners took a decidedly sour turn in 2007 after it decided to go it alone with its UK resellers and cut the channel's middlemen out of the mix. All five of its distributors - Westcon, Crane, Nessco, Nimans and Rocom - were sent notification of termination letters. As with all failed relationships, one side was swift to blame the other completely (Mitel) saying it was sick of being in bed with a control freak and was now "in control of its own destiny". Meanwhile distributors lampooned the vendor for running out of handset stock, which one former partner claimed was akin to "Tesco running out of milk". Perhaps this one was just never meant to be.

Seagate and eSys
Vendor Seagate's acrimonious split with former distribution partner eSys turned into a three-year court battle that put Kramer vs Kramer to shame. Singapore-based eSys was dumped by the hard-drive manufacturer after a six-year relationship, because the distributor would not let the vendor see its accounts. Seagate had sent a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission because it was doubtful of eSys' claims for programme credits under its distribution sales incentive programme. The pair eventually settled out of court, and have managed to keep the terms and conditions of their settlement quiet ever since. But, after an ordeal like this, you can't help but wonder if either of them will ever love again.

Mark Hurd and HP
Sometimes people grow apart and the realisation slowly dawns that it just isn't working any more. On other occasions - such as with HP and its former boss Mark Hurd - a powder-keg relationship combusts swiftly and explosively. After five happy years together, Hurd found himself sleeping on the couch following allegations about the impropriety of his relationship with Jodie Fisher, a former skin-flick actress who worked as a marketing contractor for HP. But the ousted CEO quickly found a new mate, in the shape of Oracle boss Larry Ellison - himself reportedly no stranger to hands-on management of younger female employees - who gave him a job. HP's new flame doesn't quite appear to have swept the vendor off its feet, with incoming boss Léo Apotheker enduring a tough first quarter in charge. Let's hope he doesn't run into Hurd and Ellison at a party.