Oracle reels in Sun Microsystems with $7.4bn buy Database giant Oracle has agreed to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.4bn, or $9.5 a share, in cash. The surprise move comes in the wake of IBM walking away from a possible buyout of Sun Microsystems for $6.85bn. Oracle said the boards of both the firms had given the transaction the thumbs up. It’s expected to complete this summer …
"Oracle.... aspire to help customers simplify the development, deployment and operation of high value business systems, from applications all the way to datacenters...." So why did they buy Sun then? :D
Can't wait for the firesale of all the hardware bizz, it will be interesting to see who steps up to bid for any of it (CISCO?)!
... on how big Schwartz's golden parachute will be, although given that he's systematically destroyed Sun he probably deserves to be keelhauled behind one of Ellison's yachts.
Sad to see it end like this - I don't work for Sun but know a fair few people who do, at least for now. All the best to the lot of them.
Tombstone - an ignominious end to a once-fine company.
Expect a lot of things to die with this deal. Oracle has no patience for low margin hardware unless it sells lots of software licenses.
HP is the real loser as they are the only ones without a software stack which is were the real profit is. (but they still have ink)
McNealy's life work is for nothing buy Larry's chopping block.
"Ellison and McNealy were two of the prime movers behind the anti-Wintel coaliton which pushed the Network Computer. This was launched with much hoopla back in 1995. It's nice to know they've finally got there" :-)
With such a protracted gestation, can the Future expect One Mother of a System Internet Networking as AIdDynamIQ Computer with Virtual Operating Systems and Attendant and Attentive Drivers? .
Big Blue bites the Dust ..... and is extraordinarily rendered an Also Ran?
Bravo..... and to the Victor the Spoils.
"Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system - applications to disk - where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up."
I wonder how this works with the "HP is much faster running Oracle" campaign HP have been running on the back of mags like the Economist.
Oracle have been struggling to integrate their last bunch of purchases with all that framework stuff and Oracle Forms HTML nasty hybrid stuff for ever. But that could also be something to do with firing all the competent old hands a couple of years ago.
Please, can we kill Oracle Forms now? But to replace it with Java ... gah.
Shame really, JIS had vision for the future of IT but not Sun's place in it. With zero business accumen he was doomed to fail and take Sun with him...
Sun IP is significant and Oracle will do what they have done in almost every acquisition slash and burn...the end of an era.
PLEASE will someone with some sense take the business private, get rid of my little pony and focus on the core strengths of this innovation powerhouse before it's too late?
1) What happens to Solaris & OEL now that Oracle have two competing operating systems which will both run on the same Intel-compatible hardware. Different code sources, bot open-sourced but with wildly different licenses.
2) What happens to the server and microprocessor design business. Is SPARC doomed? If sold off, who will keep that going when they are unlikely to be handed the ownership of Solaris too.
3) How are Oracle going to get money from SUN's open source software business given the latter never managed it. In other words, how are we going to be stitched up...
I'll assume the odds and ends of the SUN business, like the storage side will get sold off, although none of those have the strategic importance of the server and SUN open source software set.
Oh - and my sympathy to SUN employees - they are going to be paying the real price for this...
Hmm, for those of us who have built a business around MySQL, this is a little worrying. Is it in Oracle's interest to continue to have an open-source db like MySQL around? My feeling is that, if they've got any sense, they'll look at building a clear upgrade path from MySQL to Oracle and use it to broaden their user base. If they let MySQL die, all they'll succeed in doing is forcing those who can't (or won't) afford to pay for Oracle to use either PostgreSQL or MS-SQL, surely neither of which would be good for Oracle.
Interested in what other people think...
There's a reference to MySQL in http://www.oracle.com/sun/sun-faq.pdf
"What does Oracle plan to do with MySQL?
MySQL will be an addition to Oracle’s existing suite of database
products, which already includes Oracle Database 11g, TimesTen,Berkeley DB open source database, and the open source transactional storage engine, InnoDB."
My concern in the longer term is the diultion of enterprise features within MySQL where overlap and competition with that and Oracle may arise.
...to see what the future brings. I don't think it makes any sense for Oracle to buy the company and then flog off the hardware because - seriously - what's left at Sun when you take away the hardware?
If they follow up on the position of having a true end-to-end solution, I think that would be very powerful indeed.
Any odds on IBM buying HP now they've missed out on Sun?
"Anyone got any thoughts on what this means for mySQL?"
A forking of the code base? Can't the Sun sell-out having a major effect otherwise, since the bulk of MySQL is GPL'd anyway (the same logic could apply to Java, at least to a first approximation)
Personally, I've been looking for a reason to migrate stuff to Postgres. Maybe this is it.
>> "be accretive to Oracle's earnings" - does this mean the same as "increase"?
Seems to, pretty much. Looks like we both learnt a new word today.
From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/accretive:
ac⋅cre⋅tion /əˈkriʃən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [uh-kree-shuhn] Show IPA
–noun 1. an increase by natural growth or by gradual external addition; growth in size or extent.
**Usual disclaimers about these being "my opinions, not my employers" apply.**
Does this mark the move of Oracle into the hardware business? I'd like to see Sparc & Solaris continue in some form... they are the only proprietary Unix competitor I can respect (HPUX is garbage)
How will Java fare under Oracles stewardship, and will we get better licensing terms from Oracle? I really would have preferred IBM to get control of Java (if only to get rid of the current brain dead license terms).
Is this the end for MySQL?
Here's hoping that all my old colleagues who ended up @ Sun PS continue to have jobs.
Get your chequebooks ready...
Looks like going forward the free Oracle / MYSQL versions will only contain a subset of functionalities and or be limited in capability.
If you cant beat em buy em. (aquire, adopt, extend being ideas that are clearly lost on the numpties at the top of the big media foodchain.
And who will give odds on IBM buying PostgreSQL?
As for Sun Java frankly i couldn't care less - Its always been ironic that the best Oracle IDE (TOAD) and the power user shell SQLPlus are both written in C++.
1) Push Linux big time on Oracle's "own" hardware X86 kit
2) Complete domination of the Solaris platform from web app, down through the DB to the O/S and right to the hardware
3) Push mySQL to the side ( out of sight out of mind )
4) Sack Schwartz!
5) Buy a bigger yacht to celebrate!!!
6) Grudgingly pay shareholders something for their trouble....
Sod MySQL, what will happen to OpenSolaris now, with Oracle being so big on Linux and pushing their own copy of RHEL?
@Simon, you don't keel-haul "behind" a boat, you do it under the boat. Haul the condemned slowly along the boat's keel.
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Hmm.. take the maker of arguably the highest quality hardware on the planet, and the most prolific database company... put them together.... .. looking down the line, really, you'd have to be an idiot to look elsewhere.. who knows more about high end systems than Sun? or really, has a better technology stack to underpin Oracle with? .. and in turn.. who is in better position to make use of this hardware stack than Oracle... -- Personally, I think it's great news...
I can already feel my prices rising. I'm sure there is some marketing idiot at Oracle who is now thinking of new, per-core, ways of charging us for products we used to get for free or low cost.
MySQL, it was nice working with ya. The writing should have been on the wall when MySQL top execs left, but now, why in the world would Oracle continue with MySQL? Unless they bastardize MySQL into some kind horrific of feeder/sales channel for full Oracle.
Time to give PostgreSQL a more thorough review. At least we can be assured of continued openness and development (think 3-5+ years)
It seems that Sun and Oracle are a better fit product wise. In regards to MySQL though, Oracle owns Innobase and maybe that is where MySQL will fit in - (InnoSQL, MyDB anyone). If anyone knows more about the relationship between InnoDB and Oracles other database products. Please enlighten us.
As for Paris, she knows as much as anyone about enterprise database solutions.
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