One more possible buyer (Score 2, Interesting)

Fujitsu is a world-wide manufacturer of computer systems, including the ownership of Amdahl and the competing products to IBM's mainframes that Amdahl has produced for 30+ years. Fujitsu also produces and markets the the Sparc64-based PrimePower series, which do pretty well from a price-performance point of view viz Sun, and scale to the same levels as Sun's big machines. At this time, however, they have decidedly smaller market share than Sun even in Japan. If Fujitsu sees IBM as the long-term competitor globally, then locking down this front and buying into a readily-compatible customer base might make sense. (Some PR on Fujitsu Sparc roadmap here: http://www.ftsi.fujitsu.com/doc/press-releases/200 30312-001.pdf)