John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Investors to Sun: We’ve Got Another Place for You to Put the Dot You Put in Dot-com

java1The market today continues to have its say on Sun’s rejection of IBM’s acquisition offer. The consensus: IBM threw Sun a rope and the company used it to make a noose. Shares of Sun–which fell nearly 27 percent Monday following the collapse this weekend of merger talks with IBM–are slipping again today on fears that the company has bollixed up what may have been its only chance at salvation.

And that may well be the case. IBM (IBM) was reportedly offering $9.40 a share for Sun (JAVA), nearly double Sun’s share price before investors caught wind of talks between the two companies. Seems a good price for Sun given its current situation. Certainly, there are no other offers on the horizon. Nor are there likely to be. “Others have already passed over Sun–given that, we’re unsure who would step up to the plate,” Edward Jones analyst Bill Kreher told Bloomberg. “We are unsure if the company can execute a successful turnaround on its own. Their future is very uncertain.” Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, agreed. “A collapse in the talks has considerably weakened Sun’s hand, as we see no other likely suitors,” he said in a research note.

If that’s the case and discussions with IBM are truly finished–and there’s a chance that they might not be–Sun could be left facing some unpleasant options. “Sun will have to take alternatives by either splitting up or downsizing,” said George Weiss, a Sun analyst at Gartner. “Sun still has several options, since there are parts of the company that could bring value to one or several companies on the market. But those companies probably won’t want to acquire Sun as an entire entity.”

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik