This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz
by Vinny Carpenter.
Original Post: Sun & Microsoft settle - Sun buys a few more quarters of life
Feed Title: Vinny Carpenter's Blog
Feed URL: http://www.j2eegeek.com/error.html
Feed Description: Welcome to my blog. I am a total Java geek that lives in Milwaukee, making my living as an architect/developer, spending all my time with Java, J2EE, OO, Linux, and open source. In my spare time, when I am not in front of my computers, I spend every other minute with my other loves: My wife, books, music, guitars, Formula-1 racing and StarGate. Check out my blog @ http://www.j2eegeek.com/blog
I'm sure you've heard by now that Microsoft and Sun has ended their long running feud and settled the lawsuit and reached a broad agreement. Complete coverage at news.com.
Under the 10-year pact, Microsoft will pay Sun $700 million to resolve antitrust issues and $900 million to resolve patent issues. The companies will pay royalties to use each other's technology; Microsoft is paying $350 million now, with Sun to make payments when it incorporates technology later.
I guess this is really great news for both companies. Microsoft has been struggling to put this and other lawsuits behind it so that it can look to the future and inspire confidence in the stock holders. The Microsoft stock did surge up almost 5% on news of this settlement and will probably continue to show strength in the coming weeks and months. Microsoft really wants to start growing and change the perception from the slow moving giant to a company that's growing and innovating.
The Sun stock rocketed up 20% on the news of the settlement. Readers of this blog know that I am not a big fan of Sun, especially its management. I think Scott McNealy has destroyed this company and should be fired ASAP. Sun has been bleeding cash and everything they have done recently is just a mad grab for cash, including the whole Orion fiasco. This settlement will bring some much-needed infusion of cash to Sun, but I am not sure if it's enough for Sun to survive. They continue to face very stiff competition from IBM and HP on the mid-range UNIX servers and Linux is making massive inroads in the enterprise across the industry. The penguin continues to march on and seems to taking Market share away from Sun rather than Microsoft. The new battle for the server will be Linux vs. Windows 2003.
Sun has also decided to cut 3000 jobs along with this announcement, which amounts to 9% of its workforce. In addition, Sun also named Jonathan Schwartz, previously executive vice president of software, as president and chief operating officer. It's only a matter of time before McNealy is dumped or resign to let Schwartz or someone else take the reins. I see a very bleak future for Sun as it's still stuck in proprietary land while the industry is asking for open system and interoperability.
Previous Topic
