OStatic

According to the New York Times and Bloomberg, IBM's purchase of Sun Microsystems is imminent. The official announcement and terms of the acquisition will most likely be made public on Monday, but a late in the day announcement hasn't been ruled out. It's estimated that the purchase will cost IBM nearly $7 billion.

There's been much speculation and discussion both here at OStatic and elsewhere about what this means for Sun and its open source projects.

As Kristin noted this morning, the Wall Street Journal's report that IBM is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems doesn't make the deal a foregone conclusion, but there are a lot of reasons why it's likely to happen. Given the waiting game that Sun has been playing for its open source strategy to pay off, and how perilous that's been for the company, I agree with Kristin that an IBM acquisition may be good news for Sun. Still, Sun is one of only a few public open source companies, and if it's no longer independent, will that be negative for open source?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that IBM is currently in talks to purchase Sun Microsystems. The acquisition is not a foregone conclusion, due in part to the very different corporate cultures in the companies. Some believe this tension will ultimately help both companies succeed, if they can just get through the talks.

The acquisition could take place as early as this week, and it is speculated that IBM could pay over $6.5 billion for Sun. Sun's recent financials have been more than a little disappointing, and this purchase would take a toll on IBM's profits in the short term. Business isn't solely about the short term, however, and I can't help but agree with the WSJ, CNet's Matt Asay, and at least a few of those involved in the talks that this acquisition would be a positive one for IBM, Sun, and open source in general.

Andy Patrizio, over at InternetNews.com, is trotting out that tired old question once again: where are the open source billionaires? as if that was somehow relevant or necessary for open source to be worthwhile. Patrizio also suggests that open source is being carried by large vendors, but doesn't seem to grasp the benefits that the vendors are getting out of open source.

Gartner is out with a new report that predicts that soon all businesses will use open source software--although there are some open source warnings too.....

Wired has an interesting item on supercharging Canon digital cameras using open source software.....

When asked about the future direction of Sun Microsystems, one of the company's new managing directors highlighted open source as a key focus.....

Dojo has stabilized and released a new version of its open source Ajax toolkit, backed by IBM, Sun and AOL....