News
WSJ: IBM, Sun Talks 'Unraveling'
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday
that the proposed $7 billion dollar deal for IBM Corp. to acquire Sun Microsystems virtually collapsed this weekend.
Unnamed sources told the paper that price IBM offered -- ranging from $9.10 to $9.40 per share -- "wasn't the biggest issue." Instead, a combination of concerns, including how committed IBM is to the acquisition, reportedly left Sun's board "split" over the deal, with Sun co-founder and Chairman Scott McNealy in the against camp. This resulted in Sun turning down IBM's offer on Saturday, and IBM formally withdrawing the offer Sunday.
Reporters William M. Bulkeley and Don Clark wrote that the parties are still communicating via telephone, although the talks can be characterized as "confrontational," They also point out that even if successful, any merger could face difficulties from both European and U.S. antitrust regulators.
As of Sunday night, neither IBM nor Sun have commented on the report or the deal itself.
Read the full The Wall Street Journal story here.
About the Author
Becky Nagel is vice president of AI for 1105 Media, where she specializes in training internal and external customers on maximizing their business potential via a wide variety of generative AI technologies as well as developing cutting-edge AI content and events. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Uses," regularly leads research studies on generative AI business usage, and serves as the director of AI Boardroom, a new resource for C-level executives looking to excel in the AI era. Prior to her current position she was a technical leader for 1105 Media's Web, advertising and production teams as well as editorial director for a suite of enterprise technology publications, including serving as founding editor of PureAI.com. She has 20 years of enterprise technology journalism experience, and regularly speaks and writes about generative AI, AI, edge computing and other cutting-edge technologies. She can be reached at [email protected].