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Oracle Buys Sun

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:20 pm
by Alan Kirk
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp. agreed to buy Sun Microsystems Inc. for about $7.4 billion in cash, swooping in after the server maker’s talks to be acquired by International Business Machines Corp. failed.

Oracle will pay $9.50 a share, 42 percent more than Sun’s closing price on April 17. Oracle plans to make Sun a profitable part of its business and said the purchase will add $1.5 billion to operating earnings, excluding some items, in the first year.

The takeover moves Oracle, the world’s second-largest software maker, into the market for server and storage computers, pitting the company against IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison also gains Sun’s Java programming language and Solaris operating system, which work with its top-selling database program.
From the point of view of this happy little band (notably those using Oracle BI products), the acquisition of Solaris and Java may well be more interesting two or three years down the track than the hardware side of things.

However I grit my teeth regarding what this might mean for Sun's MySQL, which I was just starting to cut my teeth on, given that it would be a competitor for Oracle's bread and butter products.
“Java is the single most important software asset we have ever acquired,” Ellison said. Oracle will continue to expand the Java business, he said.
Hmmm... I thought that the bearded pillock might say that.
IBM was in takeover discussions with Sun in the past month, offering as much as $9.40, until negotiations broke down over price and terms, according to people familiar with the situation. IBM spokesman Ian Colley declined to comment today.
Sun probably couldn't find the three months necessary to read through all of the e-mails and snail mails needed to understand the Byzantine nuances of setting up an IBM customer account...

Re: Oracle Buys Sun

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:54 am
by jim wood
I'm not sure MySQL will go anywhere. If Oracle have got anything about them they should use it to expand in to markets that oracle currently doen't work well in. For example web sites like this one. They may also be able to expand more in to the PHP arena.

They could also scale down the size capabilities of MySQL leaving it in a position to continue as a web force but leave it out of the main business arena, leaving this to Oracle instead. They might even make them compatible so customers can migrate from MySQL if their database gets too big.

You have to remember that Oracle have a slightly better history of buying products than IBM. I thought the same about MySQL initially but the more I thought on, the more I thought it would be ok,

Jim.

Re: Oracle Buys Sun

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 11:57 am
by George Regateiro
I can only hope they do more with Sun's assests then they have with PeopleSoft. We are still waiting on the new version well after it was promised and not a single update that we have heard.

Re: Oracle Buys Sun

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:08 pm
by John Hobson
Well here's what Sun sent me today - who needs Oracle eh? :D
There's handling growth. Then there's handling explosive growth.

Imagine your MySQL being able to cope with your business growing by up to 1000% a year. Or with the ability to support a million users, all at the same time. Thanks to Sun’s award-winning server, storage and software solutions, you don’t have to. Running on Sun systems, MySQL scales quickly and efficiently to handle even the most exponential growth.

With MySQL now an integral part of Sun, we’re best placed to help your company meet any scalability demand, simplifying deployment as well as reducing the time to market of new web applications – giving you the competitive edge.

Sun systems for MySQL offer unrivalled scalability, optimized performance, and significantly reduces TCO. In fact, it could just be the missing ingredient your business needs.

The benefits of Sun systems for MySQL

Scale quickly and easily to support over one million concurrent users

Cope with up to 1000% year on year growth

Boost performance by up to 50%

Reduces database size up to 40%

Delivers up to 10x better price/performance compared to our competitors

Up to 3x higher transaction volumes

Use up to 4x less power and space in your data centre


Learn more about the scalability benefits of Sun systems for MySQL incorporating the 45nm Intel® Xeon® processor 5400 series with second generation quad-core technology. This technology underpins the performance, energy efficiency, and virtualization capabilities delivered by Sun's X4150 server with MySQL.

Re: Oracle Buys Sun

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:51 pm
by John Hobson
http://www.retailsystemsresearch.com/_d ... ummary/904

And here is a perspective on what all this consolidation means to retailers (and others)