IBM, HP use big discounts to woo Sun customers
IBM and HP are trying to lure server and storage customers away from Sun Microsystems by exploiting uncertainty caused by Oracle's pending acquisition of the company.
IBM and HP are trying to lure server and storage customers away from Sun Microsystems by exploiting uncertainty caused by Oracle's pending acquisition of the company.
Former Sun Microsystems country manager John Mazenier is one of five staff to have left the vendor to join NSC Group, an Australian-based integrator which is setting up two offices in New Zealand.
With Sun Microsystems on the verge of being absorbed by Oracle, one of its biggest longtime rivals, Hewlett-Packard, today announced plans to go after its customers with various migration deals and discounts.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) needs more time to examine Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems beyond an initial review period, Oracle said on Friday.
Sun Microsystems shareholders filed three separate lawsuits last month in an effort to halt the company's pending sale to Oracle, according to a filing Sun made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
The suits, filed in Santa Clara County, California, superior court, name Sun, some of its officials and Oracle as defendants, according to the filing.
All three actions are aimed at blocking the US$7.4 billion sale, alleging the price tag is "unfair and inadequate".
They also allege "claims for breach of fiduciary duty against the individual defendants and for aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty against the corporate defendants," the filing states.
The defendants have yet to file answers to the complaints, according to Sun.
Oracle announced its plans to buy Sun in April, after reported talks between IBM and Sun fizzled.
An Oracle spokeswoman declined to comment on the suits, but provided a statement saying that Sun had disclosed its potential violations of the FCPA prior to the acquisition agreement.
More information about the lawsuits is available at various websites, including pr-inside.
Sun Microsystems has reported a sharp drop in revenue for its third (January to March) fiscal quarter.
Last Monday, we learned that the Sun might rise again. Oracle has decided to spend approximately US$7.4 billion (NZ$13.3 billion) to buy its longtime Silicon Valley neighbour. A combination of these two stalwarts, both instrumental in the rise of the northern California high-tech power base, would signal a regretful passing of a member of the old guard. But times change and Sun did not change with them (much as Digital, Compaq, SGI, Cray and others before it). The question is, why would Oracle, a company that has been gobbling up companies over the past few years (including Siebel, PeopleSoft and BEA), but with its own set of challenges, want to move into hardware — a commodity, cutthroat business? The answer is it probably doesn't — at least not directly. But this acquisition is attractive to both Oracle and Sun for different reasons, although it may not be so attractive to end-user organisations. Let's look at who gains through this acquisition, to see who the winners and losers might be.
Oracle has stated it was Sun Microsystems' software business that made it want to buy the company, raising significant questions around the fate of Sun's hardware business, analysts say.
Oracle has signed a deal to purchase Sun Microsystems for US$7.4 billion, plunging the enterprise software vendor into the hardware market and making Sun the latest company to be subsumed by the Silicon Valley giant.
After the apparent collapse of acquisition talks between IBM and Sun Microsystems, Sun faces a choice: continue looking for a buyer, change its management — or just keep plugging along as is.
The next step for Sun Microsystems, after its apparent failure to reach an agreement with IBM on an acquisition, is to continue looking for a buyer, change its management — or just keep plugging along and pretend that nothing ever happened.
Sun Microsystems will lay off several thousand workers this week in a follow-up to a restructuring plan announced a few months ago, analysts said on Monday.
Sun has revealed more about its plan to use solid-state drives in its servers, which it says will help customers to reduce energy costs and improve application performance in the datacentre.
In a speech on Wednesday, the CEO of Sun Microsystems ignored the rumours that the company may be sold to IBM, and focused instead on the business opportunities presented by cloud computing and open-source software.
Global technology giant IBM is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems in a deal that would expand its server market share, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.