IBM To Buy the Sun?
The Wall Street Journal reports that
IBM is negotiating to buy Sun Microsystems for more than $6 billion (one-thirtieth of what we've given to AIG).
This could be a large and possibly problematic deal. Already, IBM has a range of platforms, PC servers, System x mainframes, PowerPC servers, and the System i and System x. Even Houdini couldn't untangle this knot of products. Sun has a similar issue. It has standard PC servers, as well as RISC machines -- and Solaris runs on both. The two also have an array of virtualization, management and storage tools.
There's tremendous value in Sun, a company that never stops innovating, but there's also colossal overlap and confusion -- not to mention the likelihood of layoffs. Is this a good idea, or will IBM become a hodgepodge of incompatible and competing products? Give us your best M&A advice at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on March 18, 2009 at 11:53 AM