Dell: IBM-Sun talk creates business opportunity
CEO says merger rumblings are fomenting uncertainty over the future of Sun's Solaris-based servers--and that's good for those who sell x86-based servers. (From Reuters)
TOKYO--The chief executive of Dell said on Tuesday that talk of IBM possibly buying Sun Microsystems was providing an "enormous opportunity" to the world's No. 2 PC maker in the corporate server market.
Michael Dell said such talk created uncertainty over
Apart from the potential IBM-Sun union, Dell is also facing an uphill battle with network equipment maker Cisco Systems and with Hewlett-Packard. Cisco has announced a
"Just the rumor of IBM potentially purchasing Sun creates an enormous opportunity because all of the Sun accounts are very concerned what will happen to the Solaris platform and Sparc microprocessor," Dell told a briefing in Tokyo.
"I think this accelerates the migration (to x86-based servers) and sends a lot of those accounts into an opportunity," he said.
Sources with knowledge of the matter have said IBM is in talks to buy Sun.
The Wall Street Journal reported that IBM was offering to pay at least $6.5 billion in cash, with the total deal value at about $8 billion, including $1.4 billion of cash on Sun's balance sheet.
Dell lags both IBM and HP in the server market, with a 2008 market share of around 12 percent, according to research group IDC. Its focus has been on low- to mid-range x86 servers, and Dell ranks second in that market after HP.
Dell also said that the company was exploring the business of smaller-screen devices, while its consumer business is growing faster than the industry in the first quarter.
The company is
PC sales make up around 60 percent of