IBM-Sun Would Reshape Internet’s Future

Last week, amidst the bombardment of grave economic forecasts, came the news that IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: JAVA) are discussing a possible merger. While both vendors are well known for their hardware, each of these companies also has a substantial software business. Perhaps more important than that is the role that each plays in Internet technology,and how a combined entity might compete against that other Internet titan, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT). More on that in a minute.

While a combined IBM-Sun would be a hardware-server giant, and that could be the area that creates an antitrust issue, the Internet impact could be even bigger. Consider these key elements of Internet technology: Java, Open Source, and LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python) and how much control and influence the IBM-Sun business would have.

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