Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems - NYTimes.com

This week in my classes we are looking at the "Market for Corporate Control." The central part of which is the merger and acquisition market. Thus, I should be sending thank-you cards to Sun and Oracle for the following which will make class that much more interesting:

Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems - NYTimes.com:

"The Oracle Corporation, the technology information company, announced Monday that it would acquire a rival, Sun Microsystems, for $9.50 a share, or about $7.4 billion.

The agreement with Oracle came about two weeks after I.B.M. ended its talks with Sun. The Sun board balked at that deal after I.B.M. lowered its offer to $9.40 a share from $10. Still, Monday’s deal represented a 42 percent premium over Sun’s closing price of $6.69 on Friday."

Sun Microsystem CEO Jonathan Schwartz wrote the following about the deal:

"So today we take another step forward in our journey, but along a different path - by announcing that this weekend, our board of directors and I approved the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by the Oracle Corporation for $9.50/share in cash. All members of the board present at the meeting to review the transaction voted for it with enthusiasm, and the transaction stands to utterly transform the marketplace - bringing together two companies with a long history of working together to create a newly unified vision of the future....To me, this proposed acquisition totally redefines the industry,"