IBM spills the beans about Sun

BIGGISH Blue has been telling the world plus dog why it is so interested in buying Sun Microsystems.

Alex Yost, vice president IBM BladeCenter has told Cnet that Biggish Blue wants Sun's customer base for its server business.

Yost said that IBM has an active business of migrating customers from Sun's SPARC architecture to x86-based servers, but there are Biggish Blue punters that need SPARC architecture.

Intel boss Paul Otellini reckons the deal's in the bag for IBM.

In an employee webcast last week, Otellini said:  "Sun was shopped around the valley and around the world in the last few months. A lot of companies got calls or visits on buying some or all the assets of the company. It looks like IBM is in the hunt now. And at a hundred and some odd percent premium, I suspect they'll get it.

"Is it good or bad for us?" he added. "I don't know. I'd rather have Sun be independent, I guess."µ