Earlier Neowin had reported that IBM was interested in purchasing Sun Microsystems for $7 billion in a plan to help move into the software market. The original plan to purchase the company for $10 - $11 a share, dropped to just $9.40 a share.
IBM later retracted its bid to purchase Sun Microsystems stating the companies could not come to an agreement. The Times reported that the price change after IBM"s lawyers discovered that Sun"s payments to senior employees were higher than anticipated. Shares plummeted for Sun Microsystems today after IBM backed out from the purchase of the company. The trades dropped by $2.19 (26%) to just $6.30 ahead of the markets opening.
Possible interest could be revisited in the future, much like Microsoft continues to revisit the idea of purchasing Yahoo. No discussions were left if IBM would ever reconsider purchasing Sun Microsystems, but now with the company"s value lower than last week, talks could surface soon.