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Full of Win

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 22, 2007
2,615
1
Ask Apple
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/20/technology/Oracle_Sun/?postversion=2009042008

:eek: wonder what this means for ZFS and Apple, if anything.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Business software maker Oracle Corp. said Monday it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy server builder Sun Microsystems in a deal worth $7.4 billion.

Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) said it will buy Sun (JAVA, Fortune 500) common stock for $9.50 per share in cash, a 42% premium from Friday's closing price of $6.69.

After accounting for Sun's cash and debt, the deal's value is $5.6 billion, the companies said.

The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Oracle said it expects Sun to contribute over $1.5 billion to its operating profit this year, and over $2 billion in the second year.

On a per share basis, Oracle expects Sun "to be accretive" to its adjusted earnings by at least 15 cents in the first full year after closing. The deal is expected to close this summer, Oracle said.

The announcement comes after Sun reportedly rejected a $7 billion buyout offer from IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) earlier this month.

"The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry," said Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison, in a statement. "Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up."

Oracle said it sees "strategic customer advantages" to owning two of Sun's most popular software products: the programming language Java and the Solaris operating system.

"This is a fantastic day for Sun's customers, developers, partners and employees across the globe," said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's chief executive. "Joining forces with the global leader in enterprise software to drive innovation and value across every aspect of the technology marketplace."

The deal is subject to Sun stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. To top of page
 

pilotError

macrumors 68020
Apr 12, 2006
2,237
4
Long Island
Bad news for everybody.

Oracle has a nasty habit of picking the pieces of a company apart and then selling off the worthless carcass that remains.

Wow... The antitrust commission should just shoot this one down...
 

Saladinos

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2008
1,845
4
It never really made sense for Apple to buy Sun. Most of their products (things like Java and Solaris) would have simply been scrapped because Apple didn't need them.

Apple does need to bring in server expertise, and on that front Sun would be ideal. Unfortunately it wouldn't justify the $7Bn price tag. Maybe Apple will be able to hire people leaving Sun due to the acquisition, or maybe they're just not going to concentrate on the corporate and server markets.
 

mmccaskill

macrumors 6502
Jan 3, 2007
349
0
Goodbye Solaris, SPARC, VirtualBox and Java. Now all Oracle needs to do is buy RedHat(JBoss). Could kill both at the same time.
 

BornAgainMac

macrumors 604
Feb 4, 2004
7,337
5,355
Florida Resident
MySQL should either die or get a real backup tool. Dumping your database or doing cold backups is not a good backup method compared to using Oracle's RMAN utility.

SPARC will probably meet it's end too.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
40,101
8,376
Los Angeles
As a database programmer, a member of the Oracle developer program, a MySQL user, and a Solaris user and administrator, I'm surprised at this deal and very very interested in how it plays out.

SPARC will probably meet it's end too.
Why do you think so? That's a mighty big part of what Sun is. I can understand spinning off MySQL, but not jettisoning Sun's core businesses or Sun's own technology.
 

ravenvii

macrumors 604
Mar 17, 2004
7,585
493
Melenkurion Skyweir
Goodbye Solaris, SPARC, VirtualBox and Java. Now all Oracle needs to do is buy RedHat(JBoss). Could kill both at the same time.

Not necessarily. Solaris has been open sourced as OpenSolaris. VirtualBox is open source. Java has been open sourced.

Those projects will live on as long as there's open source developers willing to continue developing it.
 

Evangelion

macrumors 68040
Jan 10, 2005
3,376
184
I wonder what this means for Suns hardware-business... It would be a shame to see of die. Another thing that interests me is what this means for Linux. Oracle is a big supporter of Linux. I wonder if Oracle is going to start making bits and pieces of Solaris available for Linux.
 

DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
13,051
6,984
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Be interesting to see what happens to mysql , and Java for that matter.

Indeed!

Wonder how this will affect Blackberry and other J2ME licensees?! I know SUN's trouble along with Microsoft's has been the reason for the delay in MIDP3.0 or JSR 271. Wonder how J2ME as a whole will continue or die or evolve into Java FX?

Goodbye Solaris, SPARC, VirtualBox and Java. Now all Oracle needs to do is buy RedHat(JBoss). Could kill both at the same time.

I thought Sparc was already dead.

Holy crap. Oracle!?

^ LMAO ... Motorboat! ;)
 

Pika

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2008
1,759
0
Japan
I use MySQL for my forum board database. Is this going to change? Like the time when Adobe bought Macromedia?
 

BTW

macrumors 6502
Mar 4, 2007
438
0
If Oracle is smart they'd take all the software and sell-off the hardware business to the likes of IBM, HP, Dell, or even :eek: Apple. I'm sure Larry and Steve are still buds. ;)
 

hooch

macrumors member
Mar 2, 2006
75
0
Chicago
I thought Sparc was already dead.

Sparc chips are very very good chips imo. We are in the process of ordering two 5240s with the T2 chips to consolidate about 20 servers down to two. Should really save the company money on power consumption and Oracle licensing. Solaris containers are really cool and I am still a bigger fan of Solaris than Linux. I know I am in the minority, but I just don't see the lovefest with moving everything to linux.
 

tyr2

macrumors 6502a
May 6, 2006
833
242
Leeds, UK
To me this make so much more sense than the IBM deal. Hopefully it secures the future of Solaris, Oracle have clearly wanted their own OS for some time and Solaris is the perfect opportunity. Having a hardware arm as well enables Oracle to sell a 'database to disk' solution, if they get this right this can be a really good sell.

As to SPARC I'm not sure. The T2 processors are really excellent and if Rock ever sees the light of day then SPARC really might start capture some mind share again.

Oracle are well invested in Java as well, so I'd hope it has a bright future.

Who knows what'll happen to MySQL, there's a market for it but how big it is in the long term really remains to be seen.
 
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