http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123739269129772155.html
If this is true, it will have a huge impact on the future of computing and the direction of the technology. The bid is said to be $6.5B.
U really think so? Big Blue has been a monolith for quite some time. Sun has been rather dull since early 2000 imho…
More chatter here.
I don’t think Sun has been a competitor in either servers or workstations in quite a while, have they? I know where I’ve been working they aren’t even on the list of marketing share threats anymore.
It would be an interesting move, but not earth shattering.
IBM would be buying customers mostly.
There is a lot of overlap between their product lines, and their cultures are pretty different, so it will be interesting to see how well they can integrate.
Sun, although not financially successful, is the proprietor of some key technologies in IBM’s business model, most important of which being Java. Even though Java platform is now open sourced, I believe acquisition of Sun is an issue of brand transfer than simply rights to the technology. Furthermore, IBM has recently invested in Symphony, and as such, they probably wouldn’t mind having control over its foundation, that is OpenOffice.org. This probably puts an end into the IDE war between Netbeans and Eclipse as well. Overall it is a good opportunity for IBM and it can be a stratetigc acquisition.
By just looking at their sales numbers you are right. They however cannot be dismissed as a very serious contributor to the existing enterprise technology. In my opinion Sun is currently an owner of some key tools and instruments that cannot be sold to the public, but a carpenter such as IBM knows their true value and can wield them to enhance their own products. That just shows the key differences between companies such as Dell, not much more than a giant computer assembly shop, and IBM, a true innovator.
This probably puts an end into the IDE war between Netbeans and Eclipse as well. Overall it is a good opportunity for IBM and it can be a strategic acquisition.
I recall IBM as the creator of Eclipse but are they still that involved? They still have a seat on Board at the Eclipse Foundation, but only one. I think Sun is much more invested in Netbeans. As a die-hard NB user since pre V2 days it would be a shame if development on it slowed. I’d say it was much better than Eclipse, but the ensuing flame war would make the political threads look tame 
Chris
Wow, good to see Netbeans is actually used 
Eclipse is well and alive in IBM as it serves as a basis for many of their product families (Websphere, Rational and recently Jazz etc.). Do you have a supercomputer to run that swing-based IDE ;)?