John Dvorak thinks that the move of Google's CEO to Apple's board could signal a Sun/Apple merger:

As soon as Google CEO Eric Schmidt was named to the board of directors at Apple some mild speculation ensued suggesting that he'd eventually become CEO of Apple. After all, Schmidt, unlike many other high-profile CEOs, is not one to join every board that has an opening.

In fact Schmidt may have been brought in as the set-up pitcher for what may finally be the often rumored merger between Apple and Sun. Schmidt would quietly be Sun's inside man on the negotiations although technically he's be a neutral party since he doesn't actually work for Sun.

I'll believe that when I see it - and I think it would be a cluster you know what of absolutely epic proportions. If it happened, the first thing you would see would be savage cuts on the Sun side of the house, in order to stop the bleeding. That would lead to the all too common (in merger situations) middle management warfare. I've lived through a smaller version of that, and believe me - no one wins.

Here's my prediction: if such a merger does take place, the combined company will be smaller than either one within 5 years.

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