Customers await Sun-Microsoft integration

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Good Question...

I also wonder what value MS thinks it's going to get in exchange for the $2B. It's motives might be any combination of 1) MS settled for $2B out of court to avoid the likelihood of a larger court judgment; 2) MS made a charitable donation to a competitor; 3) MS made an investment for some kind of business advantage.

It would be interesting to see the text of the written agreement between MS and Sun. I'm betting that MS expects relief from the market threats posed by Sun's activities in Java, open source, Linux (including Linux on the desktop), and StarOffice.

My bet is that in return for the $2B, Sun is going to limit its activities in these areas--especially Java, StarOffice and Linux on the desktop. I think that Sun management has little to lose with such an agreement, since by all accounts Sun is going into /dev/crapper anyway. Probably the money will end up mainly in the hands of the executives, and the stockholders won't see much or any of it (if Sun runs true to the model recently established by other dying US corporations.

MS stockholders (other than MS executives who are also major stockholders) don't seem to have much clout. Given MS' enormous cash reserves, ordinary stockholders might reasonably expect a nice dividend. No dice, though, for the time being. BillG uses as an excuse for not distributing cash that more legal expenses are expected.

As an aside, I'm puzzled that anyone would bother to hold either MS or Sun stock. MS is neither growing nor offering dividends, and Sun appears to be dying. But I don't know diddly about the stock market anyway...

Posted by: FederalistPaperBoy   Posted on: 05/11/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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