Oracle To Sell Sun's Hardware Business To HP?

Underholdning writes "With the DOJ approving Oracle's Sun buyout, the question arises what Oracle might want to do with Sun's hardware business. It's no secret that what Oracle wanted was the software part. Now The Inquirer is running a story claiming that Oracle will sell the hardware business of Sun to HP. This will give Oracle a juicy check while HP can increase its services. Larry Ellison denies that it will take place, but a source for CNN claims otherwise."

Sparc and Solaris

[Powys]

Since Sun made Sparc cpus, and used Solaris for their OS, will they sell Solaris to HP to match their hardware?

Not happening

[the linux geek]

HP had a hard enough time last time they tried to support multiple processor architectures simultaneously (for a while, they were selling x86, PA-RISC, Alpha, and Itanium.) I don't think they're that interested in adding Yet Another OS and Processor Combination into the mix, or they wouldn't have axed PA-RISC and Alpha, both of which had real futures. They've implied strongly in recent times that they're committed to Itanium, and I think that's where it will stay.

This is about buffing up HP's

[idontgno]

IT services arm.

The Inquirer [theinquirer.net] (the IT news website, not the tabloid) has some words about this:

HP, on the other hand, wants Sun's hardware to boost its services business. HP bought outsourcing player EDS. EDS was Sun's best customer. By owning Sun technology, HP will improve its profit margins on many EDS deals.

HP told CNN that the EDS integration process has gone well and the subtext is that the maker of expensive printer ink is fine with writing a big cheque to Ellison.

So, HP bought EDS, and EDS has a historical habit of recommending or BOM'ing Sun hardware. Solution? HP buys and manufactures Sun hardware. That way, EDS is eating HP's own dog food. That's the "x) PROFIT!" stage.

Sell or License?

[itomato]

Would they sell it out-right, or license it?

It runs on more than SPARC, and Sun makes x86-64 boxen too..

Who gets OpenSolaris?

Re:Not happening

[DiegoBravo]

I remember when HP got the Compaq tru64 Unix business; they (supposedly) tried to maintain both Unixes for a while, and ended with a big (forced) migration to HP/UX servers.

In the end, I think the business was good for them: more corporate clients. It's reasonable to expect the same with the (bigger) Sun/Solaris case.

Re:What does Oracle want from Sun?

[blind biker]

I am sure Google made the right decision. I am also sure, however, that an 8-way MP computer with loads of contiguous RAM will excel at some tasks where a cluster will not. A cluster is not always a direct replacement for a Sun M8000. Each has its uses and its rightful place in IT.

Hold up what if

[Orion Blastar]

Oracle is just licensing the Sun hardware to HP so that HP becomes a Sun OEM and Oracle can outsource the Sun server and Solaris work to HP and save money?

HP is looking for a way to earn more income, if they make a deal with Oracle to make their Sun hardware they can boost their server profits by selling SPARC and Intel servers.

Also didn't Sun at least make Intel based servers as well as SPARC based ones?

Sun had a deal with Next, Inc. to make OpenStep [wikipedia.org], maybe HP is buying out the Openstep IP that Sun owned along with the Sun server sale/license? Maybe HP can develop the OpenStep API and GUI into something better for SunOS and Solaris as well as OpenSolaris. HP might want to use all OpenStep IP to make a Mac OSX type server OS that is easier to use and configure to help it compete with Apple's XServers.