Sun to go private? No way, says McNealy
Sun CEO Scott McNealy on Friday dismissed a report that Sun is considering a leveraged buyout as a "totally unsubstantiated rumor."
A BusinessWeek report published on Friday claimed that McNealy has explored a plan to take Sun private with equity firm Silver Lake Partners. One of the magazine's stock columnists cited a hedge manager close to McNealy as the source.
The rationale behind the leveraged buyout, according to the report, would be to shrink the size of Sun by selling assets, investing in its stronger product areas, and then going public again. The company's substantial cash holding of $7.5 billion makes such a plan feasible, according to the report.
In a response to a query from CNET News.com, McNealy said, "On the record, why would a supposedly credible rag like BW (BusinessWeek) quote an anonymous hedge fund guy on a totally unsubstantiated rumor designed to spike the stock price?"
A spokesperson for Silver Lake on Friday declined to comment on the report.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin.
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