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The Geforce chip is made of copper instead of aluminium, which means it can run faster - Spencer Kelly, BBC Click Online
Oracle is likely to sell Sun's hardware business to HP
IT IS LOOKING increasingly likely that Oracle is going to sell Sun's hardware business to HP.
While Oracle's Larry Ellison has made it no secret that he only wants Sun for its software, he has denied planning to sell off the outfit's hardware business.
However a CNN deep throat apparently has revealed that talks between Oracle and HP are going ahead.
Ellison didn't really want Sun's hardware business in the first place, and probably wants it even less now, particularly as it is not doing all that well and it makes the finances of the deal look less attractive.
However he has been putting on his best spin lately. Ellison said that he can use Sun's server business to build appliances custom-tuned to run Oracle software. However that doesn't seem to be such a great plan.
HP, on the other hand, wants Sun's hardware to boost its services business. HP bought outsourcing player EDS. EDS was Sun's best customer. By owning Sun technology, HP will improve its profit margins on many EDS deals.
HP told CNN that the EDS integration process has gone well and the subtext is that the maker of expensive printer ink is fine with writing a big cheque to Ellison.
Ellison watchers know that when he has a cunning plan in mind he has no problem about spinning stuff to the media. The Peoplesoft and BEA Systems deals showed he was willing to bluff.
By making the world plus dog think he is not interested, he makes HP think it will have to add a bit more money to make the deal.
The fact that CNN is certain that negotiations are ongoing means that it is fairly clear HP is pushing and Ellison is playing a bit hard to get about getting rid of that red-headed stepchild he accidentally bought. µ
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Can't they just find a way to market Suns hardware to maximize profits?
The thing is, if they sell sun hardware, they help ensure, that their softqare is on it.
This will mean the certain death of SUN cpu's, they will slowly be drown just like Digital was.
And for what? To not upset Intel, and to get some quick cash from them?
DAMMIT (Yes, I would have preferred if they gave it away for free to AMD instead)
It looks like Sun is becoming part of the history very soon. Start your crazy download for their freeware/trailware now!
And for the developer, you might have to start looking for a substitution for JAVA...
another stupid copycat article. Just take a look at the SEC filings and hope for Oracle and shareholders that they published the truth.
ORCL doesn't want to be in the hardware business, the margins are too variable. If this goes to HP, it will go the way of AlphaServers, VAX and other non-Intel acquisitions at HP. I don't get the Java comment above, unless they are talking about the stock-symbol for Sun.
Larry, get awaaaay from the Hardware biz...
several years ago Sun started pushing out lots of AMD64 based solaris/linux/windows servers, and supporting them very well. While I agree that HP will drop the SPARC architecture, that's really a moot point because Sun had already started that process years ago. Other than the fact that HP sells Intel and AMD chips, their 'wintel' product lines were very similar. That side of the house will just merge
And you think the DOJ would allow this ???
It is just completely nuts. This is is an obvious bit of negative stealth marketing/PR on someone's part.
Gee, wonder who might benefit from that ?
So Oracle essentially bought Sun to get Java and whatever custom development and consulting Sun does. Was Ellison worried that they might lose their bet on Java if they let Sun fall to someone else?
Why can’t the services and solutions work closely with the hardware and software groups to optimise solutions and lower TCO. Having hardware, software and services all packaged together should provide a big carrot to offer discounts and win contracts.
Having hardware in house should enable early access to new hardware and a chance to work with suppliers on improvements. Having the hardware also means you can optimise the software for it or optimise hardware design to make the most of the software. If they stop the R&D and marketing to focus on cost recovery (profit per item) then they will loose sales and the secondary sales (HW- SW, SW- HW, SW- services).
What Oracle (and Larry Ellison) want no part of is Sun's legacy SPARC chipset and architecture.
While there are doubtles *lots* of legacy SPARC boxes floating around, why couldn't they be replaced by commodity x86 boxes running the same OS (namely, Solaris)? From a value standpoint (performence per currency unit) given the same operating system (Solaris) where does SPARC win vs. x86? That was the very problem Sun itself faced, which is why they tried to sheer away form SPARC, and brought out a long line of x86 (initially Opteron, but later other AMD and Intel CPU-powered) servers and workstations (powered by Windows, Solaris, or both).
Oracle may saay that they wanted Sun for Java; however, the real gem within Sun is Solaris, and specifically Solaris for x86 (even though Sun has been giving it away, and Oracle has no plans to stop doing so).
What would HP gain by acquiring Sun's hardware business? Remember, EDS is Sun's largest VAR (and guess who owns EDS). Another way to leverage Sun's hardware business (if HP and/or EDS plays it right) is to leverage Solaris on HP's existing server hardware.
While HP has a UNIX, it's a poor substitute for Solaris; even HP knows it. What's more, Solaris itself can be run throughout the enterprise (from the server closet to the desktop); about the only hardware you can't run Solaris on today is a netbook. It's no harder to learn as a desktop OS than Linux, supports most (if not all) the same software, and includes (as standard) the darn near bulletproof ZFS file system. The biggest problem (for HP) would be admitting that HP-UX is a failure.