One wonders why Oracle, a predominantly software company, wants to buy a hardware vendor like Sun
One wonders why Oracle, a predominantly software company, wants to buy a hardware vendor like SunWhile the IT industry is known for speed, it rarely makes you gasp. The last time it shockedu00a0 me was in 1998, when I stood with my mouth open like a goldfish at a counter in Bangalore's old airport when the exasperated assistant behind the counter asked me for the Nth time if I needed a seat on the window or the aisle. For the life of me I couldn't respond, for before me was a business dally with big bold words that said that Compaq had bought Digital. The deal went bad and Compaq's then-CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer, who engineered the merger, was eased out in 1999 in a coup led by board chairman Ben Rosen and replaced by Michael Capellas.
Why? Why? Why?In the context of Oracle buying Sun, one asks just one question why? After all, the only common thing between Oracle and Sun is that the former's software products do run on the latter's hardware. Many industry observers are also asking the same question. Some say that one reason why Oracle is buying Sun is because of Java, but software is a small part of Sun, and as analysts have pointed out, this argument may not cut much ice with Oracle's own shareholders.
Future focus
One other thing in common between Oracle and Sun is in databases. While Oracle has its Oracle RDBMS, which is one of the top database systems in the world, Sun has MySQL, which it acquired in 2008 for $1 billion. Now, what will happen to MySQL? Will Oracle continue to develop it? Also, will Oracle be able to take Sun's hardware division and make sense of it? This is an important question and one that nobody would have asked IBM, which is known for its hardware expertise. But Oracle is a pure software-only player whose only knowledge of hardware comes from the failed Network Computer concept that died with the dot-com boom. Naturally, Sun's hardware customers are bound to be worried.
And if Oracle and Sun don't take steps to clear the air and tell their users where they are heading, they might find their clients moving to their competitors.
QUICK TAKE>>Oracle is planning to buy Sun for $7.4 billion
>>This move is questionable because Oracle is into software and Sun is a hardware company
>>Oracle may have trouble convincing its own shareholders
