IBM Corp.’s $7 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems has gone the way of last year’s Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. deal. Now the question is, how will service providers – and Sun itself – be affected?
Time will tell. The key markets to keep an eye on include the server sector and cloud computing.
The combination of the server businesses would have invigorated IBM’s aging Unix portfolio, and might have given bigger legs to open-source initiatives. But pundits also expected inordinate amounts of redundancy from the combination. There was talk last week that up to 10,000 Sun employees would lose their jobs during integration. Those positions, however, are safe. For now.
On the cloud computing side, however, there seemed to be more room for growth. Sun recently bought Q-layer, and IBM could have used that asset to strengthen its cloud computing software initiative. The combination of Sun and IBM’s cloud computing expertise also would have lent gravitas to the burgeoning tech craze. As it is, that doesn’t look to be in the companies’ futures.
