Η IBM θα εξαγοράσει τη SUN ?

[cyberpython]

By MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG, WILLIAM M. BULKELEY and JUSTIN SCHECK

International Business Machines Corp. is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems Inc. in a combination that would bolster IBM's heft on the Internet, in data storage and in government and telecommunications areas, according to people familiar with the matter.

The two companies have a common interest in that both make computer systems for corporate customers that aren't reliant on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software or Intel Corp.'s microprocessor technologies. The two companies are also strong supporters of open-source Linux and Java software for Web application development.

It is unclear whether the negotiations will result in a transaction, but if the deal does go through, IBM is likely to pay at least $6.5 billion in cash to acquire Sun, the people said. That would translate into a premium of about 100% over Sun's closing price Tuesday of $4.97 a share on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
[An exterior view of Sun Microsystems Inc. headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif..] Associated Press

Sun Microsystems headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

Any transaction would strengthen IBM's position against Hewlett-Packard Co., the largest company in the information technology industry. It could be the largest acquisition in IBM's history, surpassing the acquisition of Cognos Inc. last year.

People familiar with the matter cautioned that while talks are under way, a transaction might not occur. Ian Colley, a spokesman for IBM, declined to comment on questions about any talks with Sun.

Sun shares have plummeted over the past year, battered by the economy as well as competitors who have outpaced it in the competitive back-office computing market.

In recent months, Sun has approached a number of large tech companies in the hopes of being acquired, say people familiar with the matter. The world's largest tech company, Hewlett-Packard, declined the offer, says a person briefed on the matter. A spokesman for Dell Inc., the world's third-largest server maker, declined to comment.

The deal would bolster IBM's position as the world's largest server maker. According to analysis firm IDC, IBM had 31.4% of the market last year; H-P was second with 29.5%, and Dell third with 11.6%. Sun ranked fourth, at 10.6%.

In recent years, the market for servers has shifted from the huge, custom-built "mainframes" that IBM dominates to vast numbers of standardized computers. By pushing standardized servers, H-P has made inroads on IBM.

Πηγή: The Wall Street Journal

[AmmarkoV]

LoL και εγώ μόλις το διάβασα σε ένα RSS!
Περίεργο μου φαίνεται ..

[~~Wind~~]

Το έχω διαβάσει και παλαιότερα, όπως και το ότι η Sun διατήθονταν να πουλήσει την java.
Τώρα δε ξέρω τι ισχύει και τι όχι..

[cyberpython]

Δεν είναι και τόσο περίεργο αν σκεφτεί κανείς οτι η HP με τους x86 servers (που έχουν και μικρότερο κόστος αγοράς/συντήρησης/διαχείρισης κατά κανόνα) έχει πάρει ένα τεράστιο κομμάτι της αγοράς από τη SUN και την IBM (βέβαια τα μηχανήματα των τελευταίων είναι τάξεις ανώτερα πιστεύω, αλλά δεν έχουν όλοι ανάγκη τη δύναμη που μπορεί να προσφέρει ένας SPARC Enterprise...).

Επίσης, υπήρχαν κάποιες ενδείξεις όταν έγιναν απολύσεις κατά τη διάρκεια των τελευταίων μηνών του 2008, αλλά και "πάγωμα"/ματαίωση/παύση χρηματοδότησης διάφορων projects (π.χ. διάφορα τμήματα του Java Desktop για integration components κ.α.)

Πάντως, αν τελικά η Sun δε τα καταφέρει, πιστεύω οτι η IBM είναι ίσως η καλύτερη επιλογή (αν αναλογιστεί κανείς οτι στους πιθανούς "μνηστήρες" συγκαταλέγονται οι Dell( ) και η MS( -> φανταστείτε τι θα κάνει στην Java ) )

[ultimate_aektzis]

Πολλα κοκκορια ακουγονται τελευταια απο την Ibm

[rose]

What would this mean for the future of Sun and Java technologies? Would IBM be a faithful steward of JCP and openness? What would happen with the Sun JVM and the IBM JVM?

http://www.theserverside.com/news/threa ... d_id=54007

[cyberpython]

IBM should buy Sun every week. That's a good way to keep the stock up.

από τα πιο ωραία σχόλια

[ultimate_aektzis]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-102126 ... 7-1_3-0-20

Sun Microsystems rejected IBM's formal buyout offer on Saturday, calling the bid insufficient and putting future deal talks at risk, according to a report Sunday in The Wall Street Journal.

IBM reportedly made a formal bid of $9.40 a share, or less, for Sun, which in turn rejected the offer and terminated Big Blue's right to exclusive merger talks, the Journal reported. IBM, in turn, withdrew its buyout offer.

In addition to holding a belief that the bid was too low, Sun apparently was also concerned that the terms of the offer provided IBM with too much flexibility in being able to walk away from the deal, the Journal reported.

Prior to reports that the companies were in merger talks, Sun Microsystems had closed at $4.97 a share and had been trading below $5 a share for a number of months.

Whether Sun would entertain resuming merger talks if IBM sweetened the deal was not clear, the Journal noted.

A Sun Microsystems spokeswoman noted the company does not comment on rumors or speculation. IBM representatives did not return calls seeking comment.

Sun's reported concerns over structuring a deal that would allow IBM to easily walk away from a merger agreement should not be taken likely, say antitrust attorneys and industry analysts.

"It's obvious this deal will get a second request (for more information) from regulators. And once it does, it'll take six months, at a minimum, to a year before a decision is reached," said one attorney who specializes in antitrust matters. "Sun can be twisting in the wind for a year."

A second request for information signals to the parties antitrust regulators are formally investigating the transaction to decide whether to challenge it in court.

IBM holds nearly 32 percent of the worldwide server market, based on 2008 factory revenues, and Sun 10.1 percent, according to IDC. Combined, the two companies would account for nearly 42.1 percent of the overall $53.3 billion server market.

And within the high-end Unix server market, IBM held a 37.2 percent slice of the market last year and Sun 28.1 percent, representing a combined 65.3 percent should a merger go through, according to IDC. Unix servers, while on the decline, still accounted for the majority of high-end, non-x86 server systems, last year, according to IDC.

And if bets were made on whether antitrust regulators would allow IBM and Sun to merge, the antitrust attorney said he would "bet against it."

On the storage front, in which the industry generated $27.7 billion in revenues last year, IBM ranked third with 16.2 percent of the market, while Sun ranked a distant No.5 with 6.1 percent of the market, according to IDC. A combination of the companies could push IBM to the No. 1 spot in storage, surpassing Hewlett Packard with its 19.6 percent market share.

When it comes to storage technology using tape drives, which amounted to $987 million in revenues for the first three quarters last year, IBM held 66.6 percent of the market and Sun a 33.4 percent share slice, according to IDC. Combined, the two companies would hold 100 percent of the tape market.

Disagreements over setting the price of a break-up fee, a penalty the suitor or target company would have to pay to undo a merger agreement, are not new and have been known to occasionally derail merger talks, the attorney noted.

[ultimate_aektzis]

Just two weeks after IBM broke off talks to buy Sun Microsystems at $9.40 a share, Oracle, in a surprise move, announced it has reached a deal to buy the troubled firm for a mere extra dime. The $7.4 billion, or $9.50 per share, deal represents a premium of 42 percent over the closing price of Sun in the market Friday and, according to the companies, will ensure the continued development of two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris.

It also thrusts Oracle into the hardware business. Sun's directors have unanimously approved the takeover, which should close in the summer, and is unlikely to encounter the kind of anti-trust scrutiny a deal with IBM would surely have met due to their overlapping server businesses – the two combined would have controlled 65 percent of the high-end Unix server market.

The move also gives Oracle control of MySQL, which Sun acquired last year for $1 billion and promised to keep completely open. It remains to be seen what Oracle has in store for the popular open source database, though one would think that improving a product that could compete with its flagship is not their top priority right now.

http://www.techspot.com/news/34345-orac ... llion.html

[abujafar]

Yeap οριστικο πια.Η Oracle την αγορασε.Αν και δεν ξερω κατα ποσο θα ειναι καλο αυτο για την Sun και ιδιαιτερα την java community.
Ισως ηταν καλυτερη επιλογη η IBM.Τεσπα, θα δουμε υποθετω.

[nickpro]

Επ, επ, μην ξεχνιόμαστε. Δεν είναι ΙΒΜ, αλλά lenovo.

Μην είσαι τόσο αρνητικός abujafar.Η Oracle είναι μια εταιρία κολοσσός, με τεράστια εμπειρία στις βάσεις δεδομένων.
Σκέψου ότι μπορούν να βγουν πολλά θετικά, όπως μια ενδεχόμενη αναβάθμιση της MySQL, ώστε να γίνει πιο πολύ Oracle-looking, για καλύτερη προώθηση των προιόντων Oracle.

Από την άλλη δεν θα μου ενέπνεε εμπιστοσύνη η ΙΒΜ στο θέμα της διαχείρησης της JAVA και του OpenOffice.
Τα τελευταία χρόνια η ΙΒΜ δεν θυμίζει σε τίποτα την αυτοκρατορία του παρελθόντος...

[abujafar]

Mysql is dead and gone...Dead and gone...
Και τι να κανει με την Mysql αφου καπου διαβασα οτι ενας απο τους ιδρυτες της που ηταν στην Sun εφυγε μετα απο αποφαση της Sun κιολας.
Μετα τι να κανει?Κατι με το Solaris?Το μονοπωλιο στα Unix ειναι τα linux εδω και αρκετο καιρο.(που η Oracle ειναι top contributor)
Να εξελιξει το net beans?Η oracle einai φανατικη υποστηρικτρια του Eclipse.
Να μπει στο hardware bussiness μετα?
Βεβαια κανεις δεν ξερει.Λογικα κατι θα ετοιμαζει.Το μονο που ειπα ειναι οτι μηπως ηταν καλυτερα να την εχει η ibm.

[ultimate_aektzis]

Το netbeans δεν ειναι προιον της sun.Απλως η sun ειναι κατι σαν μεγας χορηγος του.Οπως η red hat στη fedora μεσω του rhel.

Και η ibm υπαρχει ακομα.Απλα το τμημα με τους προσωπικους υπολογιστες εχει πουληθει στη lenovo.

[rose]

Βλέπω με πολύ σκεπτικισμό την όλη φάση και αρχίζω να ανυσηχώ σοβαρά για το license, ιστορικά η oracle βαράει, ερχεται java production release version.

[tsilochr]

rose, έχω την εντύπωση ότι για κάθε προϊόν που θα πάει να κλείσει η Oracle (η οποία έχει κακό ιστορικό σε προϊόντα με ανοιχτές άδειες) θα σκάει ένα ανοιχτό παρακλάδι. Ήδη έχει ξεκινήσει το MariaDB, το OpenSolaris και το OpenJDK.

[rose]

Κακά τα ψέματα πιστεύω ολα γίνονται για τους j2ee servers, η oracle αγοράζει BEA και τώρα την τεχνογνωσία της Sun, εκει πάει η δουλειά, ποιος νοιάζεται για το netbeans και την Mysql.

[nickpro]

Πράγματι, όλα για αυτό γίνονται.Μάλλον οι DB της Oracle είναι έτοιμες να περάσουνε σε μια εντελώς καινούρια εποχή.

[ultimate_aektzis]

Υπαρχει κανας κινδυνος να σταματησει(εταιρικα γιατι κοινοτικα δεν παιζει) η αναπτυξη της java?Δυστυχως το netbeans μαλλον παει για φουντο μιας και η oracle ειναι eclipse fan(νομιζω εχει βγαλει και plugins).

[rose]

Υπαρχει κανας κινδυνος να σταματησει(εταιρικα γιατι κοινοτικα δεν παιζει) η αναπτυξη της java?Δυστυχως το netbeans μαλλον παει για φουντο μιας και η oracle ειναι eclipse fan(νομιζω εχει βγαλει και plugins).

Οχι ρε ultimate, ούτε να το σκέφτεσαι. Η oracle εχει και τζαβενια προιοντα και μάλιστα πετυχημένα και η περαιτέρω ανάπτυξη σχετίζεται και με την ανάπτυξη της java. Δεν ξέρω για το netbeans, αυτο δεν μπορώ να το ξέρω. Η λογική λέει οτι η oracle δεν θα θέλει να ασχοληθεί με καθε branch της SUN, σε λίγο θα δούμε ποιος θα ειναι ο "τυχερός".


EDIT:Και εδώ τα τέρατα που δικαιολογούν μια εξαγορά σαν και αυτή http://www.oracle.com/appserver/index.html

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Η Oracle έχει αγοράσει τα τελευταία 4 χρόνια πάνω από 47 εταιρίες. Είναι πολλά τα λεφτά...
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/acquisition.html

[abujafar]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-102886 ... ?tag=mncol