Oracle to buy Sun for $7.4 billion
Sun Microsystems and Oracle have confirmed that the two companies will merge.
Oracle is buying Sun Microsystems in deal valued at $7.4 billion (5.08 billion).
The two industry giants have entered into a definitive agreement in which Oracle will acquire Sun stock at $9.50 (6.50) a share.
In an announcement to the press, Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief executive, predicted that through the acquisition, Sun could experience $1.5 billion in annual growth.
He said: "Solaris and Java have been instrumental in Oracle's decision to buy Sun. Oracle can increase investment in Java for its middleware and Solaris is by far the best UNIX technology available with more Oracle databases running on this than any other system."
The focus for the future is on building an integrated system, using the soon-to-be-created joint expertise and providing what Ellison called "an integrated system from database to disk."
Sun's chairman, Scott McNealy, added: "Sun and Oracle have been partners for over 20 years but today marks the next big step. This is truly momentous for the industry as we will be the only totally integrated system available and the largest supplier of Open software."
"There is no question in my mind that this deal redraws the boundaries in the industry."
Previously, it was IBM who was the favourite to buy Sun, but reports claim that the company had lost interest.
The state of Salesforce: Future of business
Three articles that look forward into the changing state of Salesforce and the future of business
Free DownloadThe mighty struggle to migrate SAP to the cloud may be over
A simplified and unified approach to delivering Enterprise Transformation in the cloud
Free Download
The Total Economic Impact™ Of IBM FlashSystem
Cost savings and business benefits enabled by FlashSystem
Free Download
