From Forbes today comes a thought experiment exploring what might happen if the IBM/Sun deal actually happens
The outlook: this could be a particularly messy merger.
Given IBM and Sun’s similar mix of servers, storage, and software businesses, IBM could lay off as much as a third of Sun’s staff to eliminate redundancies–a total of more than 10,000 employees–or the equivalent in combined Sun and IBM job cuts, according to Forrester Research analyst James Staten.
“This deal is definitely going to lead to a lot of combined layoffs,” predicts Staten. “And it wouldn’t be a surprise if most of that bloodletting happened on the Sun side.”
The article goes on to theorize that some of the motivation for weighting the cuts on the Sun side is that this time IBM is likely going after the installed based of their acquisition target, not their technology. We have had the same thoughts here, as has Joe Landman.
Tech industry gossip: Google and Sun meeting behind the scenes
to forestall IBM’s acquisition. Google’s leverage preventing another tech company absorption, and disappearance.
Kevin Savetz
Kevin – now that is interesting. Thanks for the tip…although Google doesn’t always preserve what it buys…