Sun following the IBM deal collapse: Customer confusion en route
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Sun Microsystems won’t be acquired by IBM after all. Now the explaining—mostly to customers and shareholders—really begins.
Sun will tell its customers that the IBM deal was just a slight detour and that the company’s plan to be a pivotal hardware, cloud computing and software provider remains intact. The big question is whether customers will buy Sun’s talk—not to mention Sun’s gear. For shareholders, Sun has to explain why it split over the IBM offer.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting Sun’s board is split (Techmeme). CEO Jonathan Schwartz wants the IBM deal. Chairman and Sun founder Scott McNealy doesn’t. Guess who wins that one? McNealy, who is dead wrong by the way, will return armed with quips and probably bring the company back to its hardware roots. It won’t matter. But Sun customers only need to know one thing: Schwartz’s strategy (see the stack at right) focusing the company on software is in flux.