An article in NetworkWorld Middle East features comments by Sun’s hardware chief John Fowler aimed at getting in front of questions that potential buyers have about investing in Sun after recent talks with IBM shut down. The talks didn’t end with any indication that they would resume, but customers have been left to deal with the prospect of buying from a company that perhaps doesn’t want to, or can’t, continue as an independent business.
“Whenever you have, obviously, a rumor, customers are going to call you and ask you questions,” said John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun’s systems business. “But for all our customers, we go back and emphasize what we are building, which is systems, platforms around Solaris, [and] storage and networking products. And they all solve a problem [that users] have today and will go on for many years.”
Such explanations are working, according to Fowler. “So after a little bit of sturm und drang,” he said, “it returns to normal, which is [customers asking], ‘OK, what do I need to do, how will this technology or product solve the problem, and how do we go on from there?'”
I know that neither company never confirmed that they were in acquisition discussions, but it seems disingenuous — not to mention insulting — to flatly call them “rumors” and treat them with the same level of credibility as talk of J. Edgar Hoover’s cross-dressing.