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More Evidence That Google Is Buying Sun?

blogcritics.org — A recent e-mail from a Sun exec states "Possibly True" over Google buyout of Sun.

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  • LoneStar, on 10/12/2007, -11/+99haha at first i thought it said that Google was buying the sun... Google buys everything these days
  • streetism, on 10/12/2007, -37/+3Google is Da Bomb
  • EvanGH, on 10/12/2007, -42/+3*sigh* Make it three...
  • sho222, on 10/12/2007, -14/+10From the post:
    "In a recent visit, an unknown visitor came from a private e-mail inside Sun's server - hence they were an employee of Sun Microsystems - which seems to have been titled "Possibly True" (anyone can check this obvious fact: just click the link)."

    This guy is an idiot. No Digg.
    • jknight, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Well although I am not a big fan of your whining about TOO MUCH GOOGLE..... the comment about expanding the parking lot was great.

      Variant: "Coffee orders from inside google double! Hints at possible hiring increase!"

      Google seems to be quite a hot topic right now, and at digg don't the users get to decide what makes the front page? So you are whining about people like you and me choosing to digg or not digg. The masses are pushing google up to the front page. Its just the popular thing right now......oh well.
    • Slipdisc, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I think anyone making a comment like that based on a single paragraph is likewise. Narrow-minded.
  • chutzpah, on 10/12/2007, -23/+8Man I am so sick of google being on the front page multiple times every bloody day.

    NEXT UP: GOOGLE DECIDES TO EXPAND THEIR PARKING LOT (sources say this might hint at google hiring a few more people!) WOOHOO

    Google fanboys please go someplace else.
  • zmigliozzi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5They are already partners though...
  • tazamore, on 10/12/2007, -11/+27Google is also buying the moon to use a WiFi hotspot where they will have a server farm that delivers their own AJAX version of Windows that was built using carbon fiber nanobots.
    • jedi0utkast, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10Google headquarters are going to be right next to the Luna Park, and the Crushinator will be the receptionist. Ask Bender he is already applying for a job.
    • TKDWILSON, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Line of site. Anyone can then surf the net at night on a clear day!!!!

      Eric WIlson
    • jcembree, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2employees will be called "luna-tics"
  • n3td3v, on 10/12/2007, -22/+3Who! cares! if! Google! buy! Sun!

    No Digg
  • Jadix, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9They aren't buying sun, unless they need their hardware division for something huge. Its all speculation, but I wouldn't believe it from one blogger's opinion. This isn't "news" this is just a guy getting off with his blog.
  • rocu, on 10/12/2007, -23/+3I will have to find a new office suite, as I despise Google. I will not use OO.org if Google gets it. Nor will I use Firefox much longer if Google doesn't quit adding crap to the browser through Ben Goodger. Google has become too prolific and I'm starting to get really ***** about small, good tech companies getting bought out and co-opted by the beast. Google has now replaced MS as my most reviled company.
    I guess I could use Konqueror, but damn, it's largely been co-opted by Apple and their contributions. I want a 100% free/libre/open source OS, browser suite, and office suite that does not have the taint of for-profit developers touching it. RMS is right. We need only free software.
    • commandar!, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Because software is tainted when contributed to by a commercial entity? Despite the free and open license that means the software is still free anyway?

      Really, get real.
    • j_bellone, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3RMS is a tool.
    • Reddog_x2000, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6@ We need only free software.

      (Sarcasm on). Right cuz no ones time or effort is worth anything. I want everyone to do everything for me for free.
    • Xepo, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4Psst. Got a secret for you. Linus is a paid-for developer. What OS are you running that doesn't have paid-for developers working on the code?
    • TKDWILSON, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Yeah your right sun isn't a company, oh wait....

      Eric Wilson
  • n3td3v, on 10/12/2007, -50/+5BLOGGERS SHOULD BE BANNED FROM DIGG, BANNED I SAY, THEY CAUSE NOTHING BUT ***** NEWS STORIES ON THE FRONTPAGE!!!! GRRRRR >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:) >:)
    • Kitsune818, on 10/12/2007, -10/+18Waahhahhahahh.

      This website doesn't belong to you, it doesn't cater to your particular tastes, and furthermore, none of us give two ***** what you like.

      Just shut up.
    • n3td3v, on 10/12/2007, -34/+2WHY?
      BLOGGING IS THE MOST INACRUATE FORM OF NEWS SOURCE TO HAVE FEATURED ON THE FRONTPAGE OF DIGG.
      THERES BEEN TWO INACURATE STORES SO FAR, AND I'M GETTING GRRR ANNOYED.
    • nights0223, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4I think you forgot to turn off your caps lock. Oh, and I find it funny that you spelled inaccurate "inaccurately"
  • transfan76, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9The guy who is writing these articles is a complete idiot. Becuase his blog has been getting hit by internel sun servers he's basing his speculation on? Well let me tell you, since when you're on Sun's network, you have to use a proxy to get to a webpage, the same one person could be hitting his blog and he wouldn't know it. The only internal stuff flying around at Sun is how funny this speculations this guy is making.
  • gol706, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I don't understand the correlation between Sun employees reading his blog and the speculation therein being true. For all we know people at Sun are emailing around the link saying, "look at this idiot...".
    • panique, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Ah my friend, ye have little faith. This is exactly the same kind of logic employed by the peasants in The Holy Grail to determine if the woman was a witch. After all, she turned that one guy into a newt.
    • thatoneguy297, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0oh *****, i'm a newt now? what the crap!
  • rocu, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3In all honesty, can Google really afford Sun?
    • n3td3v, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Yes...
      but this news source isn't trust worthy.
    • bradspry, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Goog's market cap is 99 billion. Sunw's is 15 billion. Goog's trading at $335. Sunw is trading at $4.58.
    • kozie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So SUN stock is going for $4.58.

      Lets just say your "theory" works... Lets try another possibility.

      MSFT currently @ $27.17. That means Google is somehow better than Microsoft? (Not in the obvious ways offcourse)...
  • zinic, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4These assumptions are highly doubtful, mainly because neither have anything to gain from eachother. A contact of mine even stated that they barely even use their hardware, which seems obvious enough.

    On another note, Google probably could afford Sun. However, my contact dosen't want to reveal anymore on the matter. To quote him: "Yeah. If you leak corporate secrets, they grind you up and feed you to the pigeons."

    Also, my sources seem more valid than this guy. In all honesty, Google could care less about Sun. And Sun care less about Google awell.
  • pbones, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I've never said it before, but man, "No digg". The headline on this post is terribly misleading. He has no way, as far as I can see, of labeling it as an email from an exec. Further, all that happened is someone inside Sun (a HUGE company) clicked a link in an email which apparently had a Subject "Possibly True". That doesn't mean, well, anything.
  • equusdc, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6Lame. "OMFG!!#%! Someone at SUN saw my webpage. I'M RELEVANT I tell you, RELEVANT!!!!!"

    Sad, sad, sad...
  • redDC143C, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"They aren't buying sun, unless they need their hardware division for something huge. Its all speculation, but I wouldn't believe it from one blogger's opinion. This isn't "news" this is just a guy getting off with his blog."

    You've hit it right on the head - something huge. It's well known Google has been buying up dark fiber at very high rates. Most speculate that they are planning to build their own backbone, then possibly offering free (maybe) WiMax connections subsidized by advertising.

    If this is true, they sure would need a very large hardware department.

    It would be an interesting scenario if Google offered WiMax coupled with their relevant advertising. Imaging checking your mail while walking down a street on a PDA around noon. There might be an ad for a roast beef sandwich special from a restaurant around the corner from where you are walking.

    I usually hate ads - they tend to scream at the target audience and do whatever they can to "Click here". It would be nice to see ads like the aforementioned possibility instead.
  • gatessucks, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1terrible, f minus
  • Agekay, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Why would Google buy Sun? Seriosly? Sun has nothing that could provide any value to Google.
  • n3td3v, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4BLOGGING SHOULD BE OUTLAWED, YOU WOULD NEVER GET THIS ***** ON THE FRONTPAGE OF SLASHDOT
  • nacho, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8So, because his site saw a spike in traffic, and because alot of it came from Sun systems/computers, this implies that it is POSSIBLY true? I don't think so. If you worked for Sun and there were rumors about the company that you work for being bought, of course you'd check it out. The internal employees legally cannot know about a company sale until it is public by law. It is a buzz rumor, but this article lacks fact or financial reasoning, and does nothing to address the actual cash behind a would-be deal. A deal like this would be huge, since it would affect the entire business model behind Google's profit machine.

    Can't justify a digg on this one.
  • ptknight, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Goog.. who?
  • dcskate101, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5this new comment system is great! awesome!
  • umrgregg, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4So, does this mean I can dream of working on a Google Blade5000?
  • sygyzy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Why would Google buy Sun? Not trolling here, I actually am curious.
  • DeadlyCouncil, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2Google's buying the Sun? Man, and here I thought Microsoft was bad...
  • FullMetalMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Maybe the Google OS rumor is true........

    Golaris!!
  • insomniak29, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Just because it's not apparent on the surface why Google, or any company, would want/need to buy another company doesn't mean it's not going to happen (or even likely). Google just purchased Writely. Common sense suggests that if a company like Google really wanted the functionality of Writely for some reason, they could have developed it themselves rather quickly. But, they didn't. There is a reason behind it that most of us probably can't see from our viewpoint.

    Google has some broad ideas about how it wants to bring information together. Search made them popular, ads made them rich. Like Google or not, they have the power, the money and the brain-share to unleash some killer paradigm-shifting projects/programs/apps/whatever.

    So how can anyone say that a company like Sun that produces a product that Google consumes like air is out of the realm of possible buy-out.
  • zmigliozzi, on 10/12/2007, -8/+0Google has enough money to buy every hoe in the word and use their services for a year.
  • Aslan72, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3I wish it were true. I'd love to give the big middle finger to MS/Dell some days.

    Most likely google-branded sun server would do 4 times as much as a dell and cost a 10th of the price.
  • lasermike026, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4This sounds like serious speculation. I'll believe it when the stocks change hands. Remember Google and OpenOffice?
    • acedanger, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3what?! did you just say google bought open office? where's the link to your blog??
    • TKDWILSON, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Google made a deal with sun to develop open office I think. Never bought it for sure. Open office code can not be bought like that.

      Eric Wilson
  • mrops, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3Never seen so much speculation in one place.
  • konstratos, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I always thought IBM would be the ones to buy Sun once they were cheap enough. I'm sure Google would find some use in controlling Java, but who really knows what that use is? Frankly, Google should concentrate resources on consolidating its position and improving products before they go out acquiring companies the size of Sun. The job of integrating these companies would be a gargantuan task. Thinking it through, this sounds like BS.
  • vokiel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13OK, someone needs to help this blogger sets his two feet on the ground. Here's a summary of his argumentation:

    1. Publish an article speculating on the possibilities of Google buying Sun.
    2. Watch the visit stats on my website, pool all IPs coming from Sun.
    3. Conclude that Sun's employees are speculating about the buyout and not actually laughing their asses out!
    4. ? ( something about stocks, options and tin foil hats )
    5. Profit ( you ask for it )

    Now go to your room! ;-)
  • andywaite, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9May I draw everyone's attention to the first comment in that blog, by someone called Aaman:
    -----
    If you cared to look at the actual referring URL closely - http://nwk-mail1.sfbay.sun.com/frame.html?rtfPossible=true&lang=en

    You will see that it is not the subject that is 'Possibly True' but a flag 'rtfPossible=true' - it is intellectually dishonest of you to believe that this flag is the subject.
    -----
    I don't know where Aaman found that referring URL, but his explanation makes complete sense.
    • panique, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5He's getting clowned by someone clever at Sun. "Hey I know how to ***** with this guy, let's bait his webserver logs with interesting referers". LOOOOOOOOOOOOL

      They'll bait him tomorrow with:

      http://internalnews.sun.com/internaluseonly/mcnealyannouncessale.html

      Wow the blogosphere digg = capability to humiliate oneself on a massively huge scale
    • panique, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2That's supposed to be blogosphere _plus_ digg but digg swallowed my plus sign
    • mcduckov, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1And the digg idiots eat it up right to the front page. Report story as lame or inaccurate. It is the right thing to do and a tasty way to do it.
  • zizzybaloobah, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1They actually buying the Korean lady from 'Lost' in anticipation of setting up their own version of the Dharma Initiative.
  • antigoogle, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1This would be a good move! Hope they won't!
  • whiznat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6If we go back to the first post, then read the original analyst's post, you will realize this is nothing more than a blogger's speculation about his earlier speculation about an analyst's speculation. The only hard evidence presented is that the analyst believes Sun has attained the goals McNealy set for himself before he would resign. Everything else in this post and the previous one is just guesses.

    And he is ignoring the most basic of facts about Sun and Google: Google was the first company to make the industry realize you could successfully put together a massive server farm without using super-expensive servers and software from a huge server company like Sun. And that is precisely what put Sun in the downward death spiral. Now why would Google buy Sun when they were ones who caused Sun to lose so much value? This would be like Henry Ford buying a horse carriage company. It simply makes no sense. This whole thing is smoke and mirrors. Move along folks. Nothing to see here.
  • dpogni, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1why would google want to buy the sun, its too hot
  • nacho, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1The only thing uglier than a purple server is a yellow one.
  • brandizzle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Alright...The guy clicked a link in a email that was titled "possibly true"
    Was the title referring to that exact article? It could have been easily an afterthought "oh yeah and look at this idiot".

    Celebrity gossip for the nerds at its best...
  • Evergreen98, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5What the christ. Inaccuracy all the way - the referrer link that the guy purportedly received was the following:
    http://nwk-mail1.sfbay.sun.com/frame.html?rtfPossible=true&lang=en

    "rtfPossible=true" is not a subject line. It's a HTTP GET parameter, likely to indicate a supported browser with the capability of using a rich text editing pane. Search for that parameter on Google and you'll find all kinds of webmail systems with this same string.

    Lame and inaccurate, plus some guy being a blog wanker.

    (Edit: *****, beaten. Still relevant though.)
  • yoshihama, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Having previously worked at Sun, I can say this would be a HORRIBLE idea... for Google. Google is full of bright energetic engineers that want to change the world. Sun is where good engineers (and some not so good ones) go to be put out to pasture. Everything at Sun moves glacially slow, and any real innovation is quickly squashed. The culture clash would be great for Sun, as they need a kickstart, but Google would feel the hurt.
    • panique, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Not to mention how terrible it would be for Sun's customer base. If I were an IT manager using Sun iron and this happened, I would be on the phone to IBM in a millisecond because it would not be clear at all that SunGoogle would continue to develop it's current products.
  • Jerk, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I wish this were true, maybe my Sun stock would go up.
  • inaxdaze, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2If you don't like it, just install the "Block a Digg Article" Greasemonkey extension (http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/2206) and don't look at it - works for me. (And it'd be even better if people learned to comment only when they actually had something that contributes to the conversation rather then just posting for the sake of posting).

    That being said, the entire article is purely speculative on the authors behalf so I don't really know if the title "more evidence [..]" is entirely accurate. I would tend to think that something is only evidence if it can be proven true.

    This is in reply to "n3td3v" - apparently the comments system doesn't carry over threading if there is an error trying to post.
  • drawkbox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Of course they are Google is an arm of MS and is a great decoy. :)
  • rmdl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It's obvious what Google is doing.

    Just look at them. They're a massive database tied directly into advertising. They know trends, they know what people want. They have virtually unlimited funds to do as they wish.

    They're gearing up to compete with every major technology company, including Microsoft. They aren't competing with Office here, they're going for Windows. Acquiring Sun will make this a possibility with the exposure that Google has.

    It's all powered by advertising powered by one fundamental idea: free. Everyone loves free. Everyone is attracted to it. Most people will use it. If you have something that millions of people use regularly and depend on and DON'T want to move away from (ie, free internet), you have near permanent base to sell ads to.

    This is why they are acquring the means to activate an ISP of sorts. Their WiFi will be 100% free, funded by ads. It will be fast. It will be better than spending $50 a month for what you have now, so you will think about actually using it. This is phase 1.

    Phase 2 is acquisition or completion of an OS, which will tie into everything else they offer and will easily be marketed via their own services which they're offering to millions upon millions of people.

    This isn't speculation, but something that will happen. It's only obvious with their exponential growth and their obsession and direction with e-commerce.

    I'm sure a few things have clicked in your head as I've explained this. Have you ever sat and wondered who could ever compete with MS, or even come close to succeeding?

    Google is it.
  • cbbyers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If this happens, Sun will redesign their marketing strategy. The hardware, operating system and maintenance will be free, but after logging in to a Sunoogle server, you will see a "Sponsored Links" box in the top right of your terminal window that is dynamically populated based on command line input. For example, an ad might look like this:

    Amazing prices on "ls -al". Click here!
    • rmdl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The only "cost" will be you having to agree that they will use the information on how you use your OS.

      It's non-identifiable, of course, but... for lack of better example, say you play games. It'll relay to them what genre of games you play. Of music/movies you listen to. It won't relay details, but general preferences.

      So when you see an ad, you'll see the latest games that you'll most likely buy, or movies/music related things that you'll more than likely purchase as opposed to, say, mortgage rates or toothpaste that you probably give a crap less about.

      Kinda based on the same logic used in Gmail where they scan your email and based on the general topic conveyed, display ads on that. They don't actually do anything with the contents of the email, of course.
  • Lynxpro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
    I really wish Apple and IBM would go in and buy Sun out. Both agreeing to open source Java while IBM would take the hardware people (including the processor staff) and Apple would take the OS engineers. Its a win win situation, and cheap.
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