According to speculation from industry analysts and discussed in this blog here, Scott McNealy, the CEO of Sun Microsystems is expected to resign. He was quoted as saying that he is planning on staying with the company “until the job is done”, which from interviews by analysts with McNealy includes the following goals “reestablishing product superiority, regaining control over costs and igniting demand in a broad and balanced customer base”. Analysts already believe that these goals have been met, which raises the question of when McNealy is planning on stepping down.
This speculation is somewhat plausable. The next part of the blog entry goes a whole step further and suggests that if and/or when this happens, would Google see this as an opportunity to buy out Sun? Wow. Now that would be interesting. Already being labelled as the ‘new Microsoft’, if Google bought out Sun they would instantly become a powerhouse on a different level. For one they gain control of Java, and a hugely loyal developer base, plus a wide customer base not only of users of Java-based systems, but users of existing Java-based products from many companies. Secondly, Google becomes a hardware/server provider. This could be an interesting move for Google, especially to inject Sun’s hardware into their existing Google Search Appliance business.
Would this be a good move for both companies? I think so. Google is desparately looking to expand and branch out to become more that just the ‘Google Search website’, and has some of the best minds in the industry working with them. To take on technology assets like Java would suddenly gain them far more interest from the industry. For Sun, I feel they could benefit from an injection of new enthusiasm that a smaller company like Google would bring. It would be an interesting move, but I think beneficial.