Free Republic

In the year 2000, Sun Microsystems cofounder Bill Joy wrote an essay provocatively titled “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us.” Despite being published April 1, it was no joke; and despite its 11,000-word length, it would go viral. The reason why was encapsulated in its subhead. To wit:“Our most powerful 21st-century technologies — robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech — are threatening to make humans an endangered species.”

Over the past 13 years, Sun Microsystems' Java language has become one of the computer industry's best known brands—and underappreciated assets. The tension wasn't lost on Sun's new owner, Oracle, which on Apr. 20 said it will purchase Silicon Valley pioneer Sun for $7.4 billion in cash. If Oracle has its way, Java will emerge not only as a strong revenue source but also a key component of plans to keep customers loyal for years to come. During a conference call with analysts Apr. 20, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison called Java "the single most important software asset we have ever...

I.B.M. withdrew its $7 billion bid for Sun Microsystems on Sunday, one day after Sun’s board balked at a reduced offer, according to three people close to the talks. The deal’s collapse after weeks of negotiations raises questions about Sun’s next step, since the I.B.M. offer was far above the value of the Silicon Valley company’s shares when news of the I.B.M. offer first surfaced last month. Sun, an innovative pioneer in computer workstations, servers and Internet-era software, has struggled in recent years and spent months trying to secure a suitor. With I.B.M. and others shying away from a deal,...

IBM and Sun broke off acquisition talks: report15 mins ago(Reuters) – International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) and Sun Microsystems Inc (JAVA.O) broke off talks aimed at a $7 billion acquisition, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.Talks between IBM and Sun were on the brink of collapse, threatening to undermine a potential $7 billion acquisition, according to the newspaper. 

ARMONK, N.Y., Apr 3, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. technical giant IBM is close to an agreement to acquire rival Sun Microsystems for close to $7 billion, sources said. The estimated figure, $9.50 a share, is about a 100-percent premium on Sun's market value, The New York Times reported Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- International Business Machines Corp. is lowering its bid for Sun Microsystems Inc. to a range of $9 to $10 a share,

For Sun Microsystems Inc., a reported $6.5 billion acquisition offer from IBM Corp. — is being called a "Yahoo moment." The company may be worth more than Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM (NYSE: IBM) is offering, but it also may be more money than Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA) will be worth if IBM walks away from the table. News of the offer came as competition for data center hardware is heating up and "Big Blue’s" offer is seen as an attempt to respond to San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems Inc.’s (NASDAQ: CSCO) announced plans that it would enter the next...

International Business Machines (IBM.N) is in talks to acquire Sun Microsystems (JAVA.O), the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. IBM is likely to pay at least $6.5 billion in cash to acquire Sun, the people told the paper. That would translate into a premium of about 100 percent over Sun's closing price Tuesday of $4.97 a share on the Nasdaq, the paper said.

Hi everyone, I tried installing a Java applet onto a website today, but the applet seems to be non-functional - a white box with an X in the upper left corner appears. I check, and have a recent version of Sun Microsystems Java installed and running on my PC. Is there some critical piece of enabling code that I'm forgetting? Thanks, TQC

Sun Microsystems Inc. returned to solid profitability Tuesday after years of red ink, easily exceeding Wall Street's tepid expectations thanks to the growing popularity of its corporate computers and its newest operating system. But many analysts remained wary of the notoriously cyclical company. They say Wall Street will only be convinced of Sun's turnaround when it posts healthy profits for at least two consecutive quarters. For the three months ended Dec. 31, the server and software maker earned $126 million, or 3 cents per share, up from a net loss of $223 million, or 7 cents per share, in the...

Excerpt - SUN MICROSYSTEMS will announce today that its Java language, contrary to the prediction of many pundits, will be offered as pure "Free Software" -as Richard Stallman would say "free as in freedom"- under a GPL version two licence. Ponytailed CEO Jonathan Schwartz will announce the ground-breaking move in a webcast to be held later at 9:30am Pacific Time. Both Java SE -used on desktops - and Java ME - used on mobile phones and PDAs- will be included. The server-side Java, or Java EE will be available both under the GPL version two licence and the same Common...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Computer server maker Sun Microsystems Inc., whose revenue has declined four years in a row, said Wednesday it planned to cut 4,000 to 5,000 jobs in an effort to return to consistent profitability. The cuts, which will reduce Sun's 37,500-person work force by 11 percent to 13 percent over the next six months, will cost Santa Clara-based Sun from $340 million to $500 million over the next several quarters, the company said. Sun executives expect the plan, which also includes selling real estate and exiting leases, to save the company from $480 million to $590 million, once...

Sun Microsystems plans to offer support for the Ubuntu server Linux distribution on its T1 server line, the company said at the JavaOne industry conference in San Francisco. "We will be aggressively supporting the fork that Ubuntu has been doing," Sun chief executive Jonathan Schwartz said at the conference. "The ideals of that community are relatively familiar to us." The Ubuntu Linux distribution is based on Debian. The operating system currently provides only a desktop version that has a strong following among software developers. A first server system is scheduled for release on 1 June. The distribution is sponsored by...

Pain at the pump is the price of this country’s addiction to oil. Americans are feeling it intensely—outraged over oil company profits, fearful that another hurricane in the gulf, or a terror attack in the Middle East is all it would take to send prices even higher. But what if there was one solution to all of this? Something that could solve America’s energy crisis, strengthen our national security, and help save the planet at the same time? Vinod Khosla: I looked, did my research and found this was brain dead simple to do. Stone Phillips, Dateline anchor: Is it...

Exclusive The emails have poured in all day. "Thanks for the memories, Scott. It was fun." Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy says that most well-wishers seem to be treating his relinquishment of the CEO post as some kind of sad departure from the company he helped start. This reaction surprises McNealy to a degree - given that he'll spend the next few months traveling around the globe doing what he's done for the last quarter century - talk about Sun. You can, however, understand how outside observers sense a more dramatic shift taking place. McNealy has thinned out the ever-shrinking...

Excerpt - Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy has stepped down as chief executive, and has been replaced by President Jonathan Schwartz, the company said Monday. McNealy, who will remain as chairman, was one of four co-founders of Sun 24 years ago and has been CEO for the last 22 of those. Since then, he has been a strong and often contrarian voice for change in the computing industry, but in recent years his vision hasn't translated into financial success. "Jonathan has risen to the top of the class, and he is ready," McNealy said in a conference call. The move...

Exclusive Ernst and Young should go ahead and pony up for its own suite of transparency services. The accounting firm has failed to disclose a high profile loss of customer data after being confronted by The Register. Ernst and Young has lost a laptop containing data such as the social security numbers of its customers. One of the people affected by the data loss appears to be Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, who was notified that his social security number and personal information have been compromised. While pushing all out transparency for its customers, Ernst and Young failed to...

The Open Document Fellowship has been created to give the OASIS Open Document Format added momentum, as the war of words between Sun and Microsoft gets bitter The Open Document Fellowship was launched on Monday to add momentum to what appears to be a growing movement to support the open standard for the production, storage and dissemination of documents. The Open Document Format for Office Applications, or OpenDocument, was developed by standards body OASIS. Last month, it received its first major seal of approval when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts became the first public body to insist on the use of...

Sun Microsystems, which makes network computers and related software, said on Friday it would double the number of staff at its Indian engineering center to 2,000 over the next two to three years. Officials of U.S.-based Sun, which spends an annual $1.9 billion on research and development, said they would expand engineering centers in Russia, China, the Czech Republic and India, while holding back growth in the United States. Stephen Pelletier, senior vice-president of global engineering at Sun, told reporters at a news conference that India and China were important both for new software development and their high-growth economies that...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- On more than one occasion, Sun Microsystems' Chief Executive Officer Scott McNealy has publicly said the company he co-founded in 1982 has been for sale since Day 1. And according to a published report, McNealy could be close to setting the right price that would take Sun private in a leveraged buyout.BusinessWeek reported Friday that McNealy has had discussions with Silver Lake Partners about taking Sun (SUNW: news, chart, profile) private in a deal that values Sun at $5 to $5.50 a share, or between $16.9 billion and $18.6 billion, based on Sun's current number of...