Ellison applies the 'Art of War' in Sun deal

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>> Larry Dignon: This week, Oracle bought Sun for 7.4 billion dollars. Here with me to discuss the deal, and the personalities behind it, is our senior editor, Sam Diaz. Thanks for joining me, Sam.

>> Sam Diaz: Sure. Thanks for having me.

>> Larry Dignon: So what intrigued me about this deal is the gamesmanship behind it. What's your take?

>> Sam Diaz: Well, you know, I think there's some interesting personalities and sort of business tactics happening behind the scenes there. On one hand, you've got Oracle, led by Larry Ellison, very aggressive company, very aggressive business. And on the other side of it, you've got Sun, which is, you know, really sort of one of the -- it's a golden child in Silicon Valley, you know?

>> Larry Dignon: A very limping golden child.

>> Sam Diaz: Very limping golden child, yes. You're absolutely right about that, but you know, we like to believe in our companies that innovate and, you know, sort of advance the technology. And that's really where Sun was, although, as you say, I mean, they really weren't able to do that well from a financial standpoint. And, you know, you've got a company like Oracle that just comes in out of left field. And before you know it, there's a deal done. This is just days after the IBM -- all these talks about IBM taking over Sun, which obviously didn't happen.

>> Larry Dignon: Now, Larry Ellison's very well schooled in the art of war. Was this quite the coup? I mean, it just seems like he swooped in and nailed IBM.

>> Sam Diaz: You know, it's funny. Is there sort of be -- there was almost like a sort of game of chess going on here. Larry Ellison was sort of watching the pieces, and he saw an opening. He saw an opportunity to just jump in and, you know, put his king or queen or whatever he needed to do to put it in place. And he saw it, and he jumped right on it. I think it -- you're right; it is an act of war. He saw everything sort of aligning correctly and swooped right in.

>> Larry Dignon: And the real big thing for me is the Java acquisition.

>> Sam Diaz: Absolutely, that's huge. That's a huge score for a company like Oracle. You know, we know from the past that Oracle has not been shy about raising prices. We know that Java is out there, not only in the hardware itself, but now in mobile phones. It's a very important programming language for any company to have. And in the hands of a company like Oracle, who knows where they could take it?

>> Larry Dignon: Yeah, and it really seemed like they were controlling their own destiny because Oracle's middleware is built on Java, and so is IBM's.

>> Sam Diaz: That's right. Absolutely, they are controlling their own destiny, and they've sort of taken the -- you know, taken full control of it. And I expect we'll see some changes around it.

>> Larry Dignon: So the next natural question would be who would buy Sun's hardware business?

>> Sam Diaz: Well, I think we have to stop and actually not look at as a purchase of the hardware, or sale of the hardware business, but rather, maybe, cut up into pieces. I mean, you've got some players out there that might have some interest in what, you know, Sun's got. You got, you know, EMC and Storage Side. You've got HP. Fujitsu is a name that I've heard come up. And, you know, it could even go private equity. I mean, I don't know. It just sort of depends on what the needs are. But I don't think we should look at it as one big sale, maybe bits and pieces.

>> Larry Dignon: Thanks for joining me, Sam.

>> Sam Diaz: Sure. Thank you.

>> Larry Dignon: For ZDNet, this is Larry Dignon. Thanks for watching.

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