“I am very surprised. I have to think about it.” That was the initial reaction of Steve Ballmer, the boss of Microsoft, the world’s largest software firm. It was also the response of many in the computer industry to the news on April 20th that Oracle, another software giant, was paying $7.4 billion to buy Sun Microsystems, an embattled computer-maker and Oracle’s neighbour in Silicon Valley.It was no secret that Sun, which never really recovered from the dotcom crash, had been searching for a buyer. But most industry observers had expected it to restart talks with IBM, another industry heavyweight, which had offered to buy Sun in March. Others thought Cisco, the biggest maker of networking gear, would make a bid, since it has recently started to move into computing hardware, too. Some even predicted that Hewlett-Packard (HP), the number one computer-maker, would finally get involved, after rebuffing Sun.
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13527430
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