Oracle steps in as new Sun suitor

Enterprise software giant Oracle announced that it has agreed to acquire Sun Microsystems in a deal worth about $5.6 billion, excluding Sun's cash and debt--or about $7.4 billion with cash and debt. The more significant number to understand is the per-share price of about $9.50. The would be even with what had been reported earlier this month as IBM's revised offer for Sun, though The New York Times now reports IBM's current offer as being $9.40 per share. IBM originally had offered about $10 per share for Sun before the deal ran into snags.

Acquisitions are nothing new to Oracle, as the company in recent years bought its way into the telecom back office software market with acquisition of BEA Systems. A Sun deal would give Oracle control over Java, as well as the popular MySQL open source software. Much coverage of the agreement also already is suggesting that Oracle will gain a stronger foothold in the server hardware market than it ever has had before.

For more:
- The New York Times has this story [1]

Related articles
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that IBM wanted to buy Sun [2]
IBM reportedly revised its Sun bid downward earlier this month [3]