Sun Microsystems has announced that a special meeting of it"s Board of Directors has approved a July 16, 2009 date for a special stockholder meeting to vote on the adoption of the proposed merger agreement with Oracle Corporation.
On April 20, 2009, the companies jointly announced the merger. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion USD, with Oracle purchasing Sun stock with cash for $9.50 per share, a premium of nearly $3 per share over previous market value. Sun"s Board of Directors had already unanimously approved the transaction and it is anticipated to close this summer, subject to this stockholder vote and regulatory approval.
In March 2009, IBM had previously expressed interest in purchasing Sun, for $7 billion USD, but withdrew the offer, citing concerns about executive compensation, a few weeks before Oracle made their bid.
Larry Ellison, Oracle"s chief executive, has described Sun"s Java platform as "the single most important software asset we have ever acquired."
In November 2008, Sun announced they would lay off 6,000 workers (about 18% of their global workforce) in order to cut operational costs. This is in addition to the 2,500 jobs that were cut in May of that year. At that time, Sun said they had posted a net loss of $1.7 billion USD, that year.