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Report: IBM eyeing Sun buyout at $9.55 a share
Big Blue is reportedly homing in on an acquisition price of $9.55 per share, as negotiations head into the final stretch, according to The Wall Street Journal.
After weeks of negotiations, IBM reportedly is eyeing a $9.55-per-share buyout for Sun Microsystems, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Such a price would value the deal at roughly $7 billion and offer Sun investors nearly double the price of the stock before reports surfaced earlier this month that the parties are in buyout talks.
A report in The New York Times, meanwhile, notes the parties are discussing a purchase price of $9.50 a share.
In either case, Sun's investors haven't seen the hardware maker's stock trade at those levels since August. Last spring, Sun was trading at a 52-week high of $16.37 a share.
Sun (blue line) has consistently underperformed the Dow Jones (red) and Nasdaq (green) over the past 52 weeks.
(Credit: Yahoo Finance)The Journal notes that while the deal talks have progressed toward their final stages, there is no guarantee the deal will ultimately go through.
Sun reportedly is asking IBM to assure the company that it will vigorously pursue the merger despite any regulatory scrutiny, in exchange for Sun agreeing to a lower buyout price than the parties initially discussed.
Sun was up 1.34 percent to $8.32 a share in early morning trading, despite the broader markets edging downward.
