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The IT Jungle

This is getting ridiculous. Well, maybe it was ridiculous from the beginning. Anyway, the latest reports are that server and operating system maker Sun Microsystems was, as of the end of last week, still interested in renewing acquisition talks with IBM. However, Big Blue has, according to sources, lost interest. Again.

Bloomberg reported on late Wednesday (April 15) that people familiar with the situation said that Sun was still interested in selling itself to Big Blue, but it was sticking to its line that IBM had to assure Sun’s board of directors that it would commit to the deal and see it through various antitrust regulators. The ghost of antitrust lawsuits with the U.S. Department of Justice, and consent decrees that IBM signed in 1956 and amended in 1969 to govern its behavior, seem to be haunting Big Blue.

And rightly so. The very governments that will be looking at the deal are big users of IBM mainframes and Unix iron from Sun, and if there is only one guy controlling those two platforms, competition will cease. Right now, only the high-end Unix server market puts any competitive pressure–albeit somewhat indirectly–on the mainframe market. And it would not be surprising to see very big mainframe and Unix shops get involved if IBM tries to do the deal. Perhaps with a lawsuit arguing over the establishment of the relevant market for determining with IBM would have a monopoly in high-end servers and therefore be subject to regulation again.

An interesting article talking about the ongoing excitement around the Sun and IBM transaction, we’ll have to wait and see.  These kind of deals can be great for revenue, for refreshing a business, creating opportunities and developments. I’m off to read up more.

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