Comments on: Five reasons Sun won't be acquired

Amid a tight credit market and skepticism about the computer company's product lineup, a dramatic restructuring might be the only way to make investors happy.

[UITD]

I hope Microsoft would buy Sun and then complete delete the entire Java language and everything associated with that piece of crap technology. I have never, ever, ever gotten one damn Java-anything to run properly on any of my PC's going back to, what, 1996 or 1995? What a piece of crap. That, next to PDF files, are the two most useless pieces of garbage technologies ever created.

[The_Decider]

I see ignorance is your most prized asset.

Java is a rock solid language and VM. Not so much on the desktop, although I can lots of good stuff with it, even low level functionality that is fast, but it is king in the enterprise for a good reason.

[Penguinisto]

ROTFL! Java is open-source now (so MSFT cannot do anything about it), is used in the majority of webapps, and no matter how hard you wish it, it simply will not go away.

[dragonbite]

And that's why Microsoft spent so much effort making the C# language so similar it would be easy for Java programmers to be lured into the .NET camp?

As for PDFs, if you don't use it then you don't know how good they can be. I'm running around with them left and right here at work and they are doing just fine! Not going to move to some un-tested product from anybody else (where is the Microsoft coontender these days? haven't heard anything about it since like a week after it was announced!).

Don't get me wrong, I use ASP.NET at work, but Java and that it is becoming open source, is not something that should go away.

[rcardona2k]

Oh and like ActiveX is SUCH a good piece of technology! I'll take Java anyday over Craptive X

[UITD]

Activex never crashed my machine like Java. Or PDF. Its like fireworks. Forget it, its over. Java sucks. Get used to it.

[The_Decider]

UITD,

Stop using applets written by amateurs.

[Penguinisto]

@UTID: ActiveX is the biggest web malware portal alive... ;)

[sun_employee]

Hmmm, an awful lot of un-named sources here... I'd encourage you to balance your story with actual facts on the record, to look at incredible recent product innovations (http://www.sun.com/storage/disk_systems/unified_storage/), revenue and share growth from new innovations (eg, Sun's Niagara business crested a billion dollars per year and is growing 80%), and to report on the high growth areas of the business (a complete revenue line item chart is here: http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/resource/LineItems.pdf). And revenue growth in emerging markets was up 12%.

Admittedly a very challenging market and depressed stock price. But awfully lazy reporting by an outlet serving technologists.

[perry444]

If Java sucks so bad, why did Microsoft just pay Sun a huge amount of money to leverage their distribution? And why is it on about 2 billion cell phones? Oh yeah, the world's an idiot, you're the sole genius.

[perry444]

Oh, and hey Dawn, if Intel was immune to the slowdown, as your link suggests, why'd they just miss revenue estimates, predict a revenue decline, and watch their stock price return to pre-bubble prices ?

[joetesta70]

Reason 6: It's a POS that's out of date, like DEC and Novell

[dennisl59]

Reason 7: Their complete and utter failure to sell Sun(Branded) Disk Storage Arrays of any type.
They have spent millions and millions and NOTHING to show for it except massive losses and total lack of interest and laughter by the Storage Community. Launch after launch, for years and years. AND to top it off, they bought Storage Tek and destroyed that brand. Truly pathetic.

[linux101]

Yep Sun RIP. MS Paid Sun and now C# has killed Java. I hated MS for years and still do but C# is better than Java from a technical stand point. Java is better politically, yes its open and free and cell phone use it. But if sun dies Java will live on sun how. Sun was foolish to buy mySQL for $1B -- Wow they could of just used it for free and save a bundle. Sun really hasnt done much good for the computer society in general over the last 15 yrs. Ms need competition, and not just companies to steal from. I just wish I wrote MySQL !!! :)

[The_Decider]

c# is a pile of crap.

[Penguinisto]

Err, Java is anything but dead. The vast majority of cell phones use it, the majority of webapps use it... sure it's a PITA to code in, but it ain't gonna die anytime soon, y'know?

[retiarius]

Article errata: Please correct the KKR/Sun share conversion price to read $28.84, not $7.21,
as this was put into effect before the 1-to-4 reverse split. This leaves KKR drastically further
underwater than the uncorrected story indicates.

[ThisSunDontShine]

Sun's #1 problem has been - and continues to be - completely incompetent management. This MUST be #1 on any list of why Sun will not be acquired. Sun is rotting from the top. The current and former employees know it. Most financial and market analysts know it. The only individuals who fail to have a clue is the Sun BoD - a BoD which must rank with the worst BoD's in the history of Silicon Valley.

The current management team has produced a loss of $20 billion in market cap, has failed to deliver any semblance of a business strategy, has bred a demoralized base of remaining workers, has driven many of the best and brightest workers out of the company, and has misled and deceived investors and analysts for years. And less than one month ago the entire BoD was re-elected!!!??? Schwartz 's open source strategy is completely bizarre as increasing number of observers are now pointing out. The open storage notion is equally brain dead.

As far as the KKR "investment" goes, this was a con job. KKR put $700M into Sun in the form of a loan with convertible warrants for Sun stock. This deluded impressionable investors into believing that KKR saw real value in Sun. If KKR believed Schwartz's open this, open that, WEB2.0, Participation Age technobabble, shame on them. At this point, I do not believe that KKR is concerned about their warrant position that is worthless below $28.84/share. At this point it's all about the $700M they loaned Sun that could be at risk.

[mpitogo]

I guess now is a good time for Apple to snap SUN up. Sun does have some good enterprise hardware and software.

[dennisl59]

Really dumb question: How many actual SUN badged employees are actually left at this company? What was and when was their peak employment? All I read is the number of cuts, but how can they cut people when there are none left? Just wondering. Thank You.

[joetesta70]

Having Sun on your resume is like being an auto worker with GM experience....no make that Studebaker. GM still has market share.

Why would anyone still work there?

[shoeshineonomist]

Sun is exactly like GM, eh? Except that Sun still has enough cash to buy itself or GM. And the fact that Sun has virtually no debt while GM swims in at least $50 billion in debt. Then there is the fact that Sun still makes the most efficient servers and desktop clients in the industry, while GM doesn't even try to maintain the average fleet mpg it had in the 1980s. Yes Sun has management and marketing problems, the later is especially evident in the blog and common opinion of Sun which seems to think of Sun as having the same product lineup as it did in 1999. I was amazed to see another blog saying VMware was a buy at over $20 a share! Sun owns a technology which competes directly with VMware which Sun is able to give away for free. And MSFT, is that a buy now when Sun gives away an OS and Office suite for free which for many enterprise purposes can replace Microsoft's flagship OS and Office suite. Then there is DELL. Does Sun sell competing X86 servers? Yes, they're cheaper and they use less energy. Does Sun sell competing desktops, yes, Sun's thin clients can take the place of those ugly Dells for most enterprise purposes and use 1/40th the energy and create 1/100th the admin headaches. None of this mattered when borrowing money was free. Companies and governments were able to throw money at Microsoft and their power company without even thinking.

I'm proud to be a Sun employee as long as Sun continues to innovate. Whatever marketing/management problem Sun has pales in comparison to the fact that the world has created a financial system where companies which live on pushing derivatives, ponzi schemes and selling houses to people who can't afford them are bailed out while companies which create products and intellectual property are valued at less than zero.

[rp69]

I'm shocked to see how this article states how Sun has lost its allure. How was this determined? What is the basis for this statement? I work in the Tech industry and I can tell you that without a doubt that Sun is an organization that is admired for its engineering prowess (It's ridiculed for its marketing though). There has been absolutely no diminishment what so ever in its position as an enterprise solution leader for the high end. I don't work for Sun and I'm not a Sun zealot either but I can tell you that I have used, recommended and deployed large scale deployments of Sun solutions and will continue to do so as their competition in that space is often times less effective in a cost, manageabilty and scalability perspective. Often times journalists have tendency to look at Wall Street as their sole guide for measurement. The entire tech industry is impacted by the economic slow down and there is no real standouts with a significant measure of success in their vertical right now financially so why is Sun under the magnifying glass all of a sudden? We wrote off Sun back in 2001 after the dot.com bubble burst too I do recall yet here they still are. I'll get off my soap box now ... sorry I just get weary of hearing all the gloom and doom rhetoric all the time.

With regards to mpitogo's post, an Apple/Sun merger would be very interesting as Apple has no presence in the large scale enterprise and Sun has no real presence in the desktop. That makes a lot of sense strategically and their products mirror each other very well. I believe it would be a good marriage. Sun would then have decent marketing finally ... think of it! :)

[dennisl59]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/unix_linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211300033.

By any measurement, SUN is losing money and market share against it's competitors. Squeezed on the low end and the high end. Great engineering gives you bragging rights, but no sales---> the endusers don't care when budgets are tight. Just look at the retail business sector. NO company(Circuit City, Linens and Things, Sharper Image, to name a few) can survive this trend; they go Chapter 11.

[bollerodon]

I just love it how Dawn quotes investment bankers and private equity specialists. None of whom are going to have jobs in the very near future. They're a disgrace to our economy. At least Sun invents stuff that I use every day.

And i agree with RP69, folks love seeing Sun on resumes, it means you've actually built stuff for a real business, and not just to play with.

[The_Decider]

Sun has what it takes to survive. They just need to go private. You would have to be a fool to allow greedy, shortsighted morons control your company.

[vikramchauhan10]

Apple ans Sun would be best marriage. both have same source as well BSD unix.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Sun is burned out LOL They caused the new ice age.