Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation announced today they have entered into an agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, with Oracle purchasing Sun stock with cash for $9.50 per share, a premium of nearly $3 per share over previous market value. Sun's stock (JAVA) jumped nearly 33% after news of the purchase was released.
Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief executive, described Java as "the single most important software asset we have ever acquired."
By purchasing Sun, Oracle is elevated into the ranks of Dell, HP and IBM, giving them the ability to sell hardware as well as more fully exploit some important Sun software. It also puts them in a better position to compete with Microsoft by giving them control of both a major server operating system and some major business software begin run on it.
In their joint press release, Sun and Oracle cite "substantial long-term strategic customer advantages to Oracle owning two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris." Sun's Solaris operating system is the most widely utilized platform for Oracle databases, which is Oracle's largest business sector. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimize the Oracle database for some of the unique, high-end features of Solaris.
There is some worry for proponents of the major open source projects that Sun heads up, like OpenSolaris, MySQL, VirtualBox, OpenOffice and Java itself. It will remain to be seen what Oracle intends to do with these projects and how, if at all, they'll integrated them into their product offerings.
IBM previously expressed interest in purchasing Sun, for $7b, but withdrew the offer after reviewing Sun's books and finding out how much they'd been paying their senior employees.
Sun's Board of Directors has already unanimously approved the transaction and it is anticipated to close this summer, subject to stockholder and regulatory approval.
However Oracle is way better than IBM .. IBM would have killed all of it .. Java, Solaris, MySQL, Sun Servers everything.
All Oracle really wants is the hardware, they have their own software.
All Oracle really wants is the hardware, they have their own software.
They might do something with Solaris because they have their own OS (Unbreakable Linux .. what a stupid name). Only time will tell I guess ..
They might do something with Java, but meh, I have no love for it.
They might do something with Java, but meh, I have no love for it.
You do realise that oracle software has run on solaris for quite a long time dont you ?
All Oracle really wants is the hardware, they have their own software.
They might do something with Solaris because they have their own OS (Unbreakable Linux .. what a stupid name). Only time will tell I guess ..
Unbreakable linux - all you need is a broken update and you find that you're up sh*t creek with a teaspoon.
Running away from the EU.
yea...but if they could kill Java..it would easy for them..they are kinda scare of Linux. Killing java is one of best solution.
Annoying.
Epic fail on your comment, your one of these disgruntled people that hate everything.
You have no clue .. Java is *huge* I mean *huge* in Enterprise Level market.
I guess jj's comment is yet another that comes without reading the article first. Awesome.
It is and it totally sucks. .NET kills it in performance, time to build same thing and cost.
You did probably say that i hate Microsoft, but i don't. I am very objective.
I do programming for living in .NET (using vb and c#) and JAVA and as I said. JAVA blows.
Development Cost and Maint. Cost for .NET apps is much lower. Time needed to build things in >NET is much lower compared to JAVA version of it, and as far as performance...JAVA counter part is nowhere ****ing near it.
I say C#, C and at some instances VB language are way to go.
You have not idea.
Yes, Java stink big time but Oracle is awesome, years better that MSSQL.
Intel? That's not as crazy as you might think; what many folks don't realize is that Intel has a RISC history nearly as long as Sun itself does (i860, i960, and the infamous i432, for example); also, they acquired manufacture rights for the ALPHA as a side-deal to the DEC/HP deal (the ALPHA was the last of the better-known RISC processors to lose NT support, and was one of the best-known of the RISC NT posse, primarily due to DEC and Polywell). Lastly, Intel still has that *boutique whole systems* business (arguably, it's the second-oldest part of Intel, and can trace it's roots back to the beginning of the company); Sun's hardware side (especially the servers) would fit right in.
I figure Oracle will keep the open source projects going strong. I also anticipate Oracle moving away from their own redhat based linux distro to Solaris 10. And as shocking as it sounds.. I doubt Oracle sells off the hardware bits of Sun. The hardware strong hold allows them to offer out of the box, hardware solutions with support.
Oracle is managed excellently, and this deal was a steal ..just in the amount of IP they obtained.
All in all.. I'm pretty excited to see what happened with all of this.
Java shoul dkeep it's ugly ass away from the desktop and stay where it belongs - ina locked rack in a data centre
But seriously, well done to Oracle! I never really thought highly of them but I always thought well of sun (Data first computer was a Sun thing).
I may download opensolaris now
On April 20, 2009, Oracle announced a definitive agreement to acquire Sun Microsystems. The proposed transaction is subject to Sun stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently and it is business as usual.
This proposed acquisition will combine best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems. Oracle plans to engineer and deliver an integrated system – applications to disk – where all pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Customers are expected to benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability, and security go up.
Sun's core innovations such as Java, Solaris and SPARC are some of the computer industry's best known brands and most widely deployed technologies. Oracle Fusion Middleware is built on top of Java and we believe that following the acquisition Oracle will be able to ensure continued innovation and investment in Java technology for the benefit of customers and the Java community.
The Solaris operating system and SPARC servers are the leading platform for the Oracle database. With the proposed acquisition of Sun, we believe Oracle will be able to optimize the Oracle database for some of the unique and innovative features of Solaris. Like Sun, Oracle supports many platforms and also remains committed to Linux and other open platforms and will continue to support and enhance its strong industry partnerships.
After the closing, Oracle and Sun partners are expected to benefit by working with a single vendor to address customer needs for enterprise systems with complementary solutions that provide an opportunity to increase business value and drive down the total cost of ownership through an integrated, standards-based enterprise product stack.
We are dedicated to maintaining and increasing the level of innovation, support and service you have come to expect from Oracle and Sun. To learn more about the acquisition please visit Sun.com/Oracle.
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