IBM in talks of buying Sun Microsystems
The Big Blue is in talks of acquiring Sun Microsystems for $6.5 billion in cash. If the deal doesn't go through, the company is done, meaning that's the only choice Sun has at the moment. The biggest problem with Sun is that although they are a smart bunch that can develop new technologies, the company doesn't know how to market their technologies well and thus face lots of competition.
In reality, IBM doesn't really get anything much from Sun, apart from the ever popular Java programming language and MySQL relational database system. Those are probably the only assets that Sun has which are worthwhile to acquire. Even though Java is one of the widely used programming languages in the world, it is available for free and Sun doesn't know how to make money from it. In addition, since everything is now gearing towards open-source, MySQL would be very beneficial for IBM to compliment its DB2 shortcomings. There is no doubt that IBM will find a way to monetize MySQL because it is so popular among sofware developers.
In terms of hardware, Sun's high-end SPARC servers are very expensive to operate and maintain. They are the only reason why Sun loses so much money ever since the Dot-com bubble. Furthermore, they don't provide any advantages over IBM's own servers, since IBM is already dominant in this field.
In terms of software, Sun strictly faces competition in all of its products. For example, Linux can do a lot more than what Sun's Solaris can do, same goes with StarOffice VS OpenOffice. Expensive server (SPARC) on open-source software (Solaris/StarOffice) just doesn't cut it. Many companies now are gearing towards cheap servers (PC-based) with open-source software (Linux) instead.
IMO, Sun has great talents but lack of business sense. On the other hand, IBM is a great at making money by getting talented people. I believe they should go well together. However, I believe that IBM won't pay more than it should to acquire Sun. Smart companies will get the best for cheap. There is a high chance that Sun will probably drop to its "true value" in the next few days.