Oracle's Sun buy gets US green light

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Oracle said on Thursday that the US Department of Justice has approved its plan to buy Sun.

With Sun's shareholders having given the $9.50 per share deal the nod last month, the remaining major hurdle is approval from European antitrust regulators. Oracle declined to comment beyond a statement confirming the Justice Department's move.

The Department of Justice had said in June it needed more time to look into the deal, but has now given its stamp of approval.

Oracle announced its $7.4bn (£4.5bn) bid for Sun back in April, following Sun's rejection of overtures from IBM.

IBM was said to be still interested in Sun and somewhat blindsided by Oracle's move, a source told ZDNet UK's sister site, CNET News.com, at the time.

The acquisition is part of a change in thinking for Oracle, which at one time eschewed mergers but has gone on a buying spree in recent years, gobbling up PeopleSoft and many other software companies. Ellison at one time specifically rejected the notion of buying Sun.

Talkback

With a deep wellspring of both user and developer loyalty, some great hardware and software, how could Sun, whose share price was well north of $200 in 2000, end up being bought for the equivalent of a song?

There are data centres crammed with Sun gear, as many customers won't touch anything else. And the people I've met who work with and at Sun have been among the sharpest I've encountered. And yet the whole thing went sour.

What's so sad about Sun's demise is that the writing has been on the wall for years. Greed and hubris at the top account for a lot of it - check out the final accounts for how much the top execs were paying themselves; their greed almost scuppered the deal too. That, and an inability to listen to those outside the castle walls.

Microsoft has been making similar errors but attracts the attention of the regulators and legislators, which concentrates the minds of those at the top.

Sun had no such warning.

The company had a huge wad of cash in the bank and a revenue that saw it dwindling by the year but, hey, there were always new territories to conquer, new toys to buy, great technology to build.

And now we're left with the pieces, many of which compete with new owner Oracle's core business. What are the odds of much of it surviving?

manek 21 August, 2009 11:01
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