Is IBM on a Strategic Path to Control Java?

nightspd writes "David Berlind of Cnet has written a series of articles over at ZDNet about IBM's return to market dominance, including this one titled When Will IBM Buy Sun? It's a VERY interesting read and a very interesting predition, and poses a question. With the mega-merger of Compaq and Hewlett-Packard going forward, can we expect other possible mega-mergers down the line in the tech arena? Is a IBM buyout of Sun possible and/or viable?"

IBM buying SUN ? Not likely...

[dnaumov]

I wouldn't count on that seeing as just a few days ago IBM reported that it isn't doing as good as they hoped it was. Their income came out much lower then expected.

NYSE:LXK

[lseltzer]

Lexmark is a public company. IBM doesn't own even a substantial part of it.

Re:IBM buying SUN ? Not likely...

[JordanH]

Yeah. IBM reported a 10% drop in revenue, but they are still quite profitable, predicting between 66 and 73 cents a share for the quarter.

The HP/Compaq merger is between two companies that have had quite hard times recently. IBM's current dip could perhaps motivate a big merger rather than work against it.

Heh, if they merge, they ought to consider bringing in Apple and Palm at the same time. Can you imagine that behemoth? The Anti-Microsoft.

Re:IBM buying SUN ? Not likely...

[Tower]

Actually, TI was fabbing the UltraSPARC IIIs (check out the news items about the L2 cache issues, etc)...

In fact, TI has fabbed for Sun since 1988... you can find it in the press releases on Sun's site, or google for it.

Re:The Earth does not revolve around the PC

[swillden]

Lexmark is not owned by IBM. IBM has it's own printers division.

IBM has its own printer division for business printers, but Lexmark is essentially its home printer division. Lexmark was started with significant IBM investment, and IBM still has a large equity position.

Re:I have the way out

[jallen02]

linux-kernel.tk = goatse, you have been warned.

IBM is *already* bigger than MS

[dustpuppy]

IBM doesn't need to merge with Sun to be bigger than MS - they already are.

They earn more money than MS, they have more employees, located in more countries, sell more products ... there is simply no comparison.

About the author

[agby]

I thought that I recalled the name David Berlind from somewhere. It was an article I read over at The Register [theregister.co.uk] about one of the most clueless half-witted tech articles ever written. The register article is here [theregister.co.uk] and the original ZDNet article is here [zdnet.com]. Both make for very amusing reading.

Don't forget about Fujitsu

[kick_in_the_eye]

One of the most overlooked computer companies on ./ is Fujitsu. They are the second biggest computer company, behind only IBM. They have been in the Unix server market in Japan and Europe for years, and have started in North America with their Primepower [fujitsu.com] SPARC servers. The Primepower 2000 [fujitsu.com] is a very powerful 128 SPARC CPU (SPARC64 GP [fujitsu.com]) Solaris box. Fujitsu owns a good chunk of Sun already (25-30% I think, I have no hard numbers on this). If any body were to buy Sun, its Fujitsu.

Sure IBM makes chips for Sun, so does TI, Motorola and Fujitsu. Everybody makes chips for everybody these days, its the way of business. Infineon does a lot of chips for IBM, Infineon is owned by Siemens, in turn, owned by Fujitsu. Give the market 10 more years, and there will only be 3 computer companies.

HP & Compaq "going forward?"

[Galvatron]

In Fiorina's dreams, perhaps. In case you folks didn't hear, Hewlett's lawsuit was NOT dismissed by the courts, and a court date has been set for late April. Furthermore, no legal document prepared by HP has actually denied Hewlett's claim, they have merely tried to say that what he's claiming is not actually illegal (it is).

I would say it's no more than 50/50 that this merger actually goes through. In the current post-Enron climate, all allegations of corporate wrongdoing are being taken VERY seriously.