Oracle/Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc., ended weeks of gossip by agreeing to sell itself to Oracle Corporation for $7.4 billion on April 20. International Business Machines Corporation had reportedly been close to a deal to acquire Sun in March, but discussions collapsed. Oracle is buying Sun primarily for its Java programming language and Solaris, an operating system. The deal would be Oracle’s third major purchase since 2003, when it paid $10.3 billion for PeopleSoft, Inc. [Big Deals, September 2003]. Last year, Oracle acquired BEA Systems, Inc., for $8.5 billion [Big Deals, April 2008].
