Oracle and Sun
Microsystems are poised to tie the knot after Oracle this morning said it’s making a
$9.50 per share offer in cash for the embattled server and Java player.
The total price of the deal will be approximately $7.4 billion, but since Sun brings
$1.8 billion of net cash to the deal, the net cost to Oracle could be as low as $5.6
billion.
The news comes almost exactly a month after IBM reportedly made its own
offer for Sun, in a deal from which
Sun ultimately walked away. The Wall Journal reported that Sun officials felt
that IBM’s offer of $9.40 per share had been too low.
On a conference call announcing the deal this morning, Oracle president Safra Catz was
bullish on the deal, saying that it would provide a greater per-share contribution than
Oracle’s acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined.
