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April 29, 2005 8:02 AM PDT

McNealy dismisses Sun buyout rumor

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Sun misses revenue, profit targets

April 14, 2005
Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy is disparaging a report that suggests an investment firm is planning a leveraged buyout of the server and software company.

McNealy called the report a "totally unsubstantiated rumor" and part of a scheme to profit from a stock price boost.

BusinessWeek on Friday quoted an unnamed hedge fund manager as saying McNealy is considering taking Sun private with the aid of Silver Lake Partners, an investment firm that bought out Seagate Technology and eventually relaunched it as a publicly traded company. According to the BusinessWeek report, the manager foresees a price of $5 to $5.50 per share, well above $3.44 the stock closed at Thursday.

In an e-mail Friday, McNealy said the rumor is part of scheme to profit from an increase in Sun's stock price, which had risen 36 cents, or 11 percent, at 8 a.m. Pacific. The stock had traded higher earlier Friday.

"Why would a supposedly credible rag like BusinessWeek quote an anonymous hedge fund guy on a totally unsubstantiated rumor designed to spike the stock price?" McNealy said. "I will bet this hedge guy is laughing his butt off that BusinessWeek printed this as he profits from the $0.42 rise in the price this morning."

Sun has stopped the deep revenue declines that plagued it for years after its fall from dot-com glory, but the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company still is suffering from mostly flat revenue and breakeven profitability.

See more CNET content tagged:
BusinessWeek, hedge fund, Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems Inc., stock price

Add a Comment (Log in or register) 4 comments
Natural Buyer for Sun: Amway
by HansinYabutay April 29, 2005 9:25 AM PDT
Friends could get friends to buy Solaris servers, along with Scrub Buds, vitamins, and driveway cleaner.
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Smoke to Fire
by Nils Jespersen May 2, 2005 5:49 AM PDT
The fact that McNealy is denying the rumor only adds credence to it veracity. If you've been around as long as I have, you've seen this pattern before: CEO vigorously denies a buyout rumor, and next week you find out that it's absolutely true.
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McNealy is a loser
by 201293546946733175101343322673 May 2, 2005 3:22 PM PDT
Well, I have a feeling that he lives to fight against Microsoft. Nothing more and nothing less. What a pathetic life :)
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