Posts Tagged ‘Cisco Systems’

IBM to buy SUN

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

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In the past, IBM has mostly focused its acquisition efforts on companies that will bolster its software and services businesses, rather than its hardware, but that may change. IBM is currently in talks to acquire Sun Microsystems offering to pay Sun at least $6.5 billion, or double Sun’s Tuesday closing price of $4.97, according to a report on Reuters.

If the two companies can reach a deal, it will be IBM’s largest-ever acquisition, pushing the company to the forefront of the high-end computer server market. Many analysts see the potential deal as a recent trend in consolidating major brands, where server equipment providers such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Cisco Systems compete for the lucrative corporate data center market to supply network equipment to high-end computers.

It has long been speculated that Sun would be bought out by a major IT company, and the company has been seeking a buyer in recent months, according to bankers. So far, IBM is leading the data center market as top supplier of servers in the fourth quarter of 2008, with a market share of 36.3 percent, says market researcher IDC.

Trailing behind in second place is HP with 29.0 percent, followed by Dell with 10.6 percent, Sun with 9.3 percent, and Fujitsu with 4.2 percent.
With Sun’s shares falling 71% in the past year, it says it would soon be cutting around 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its workforce.

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HP and Cisco Providing End to End Datacenter Solutions

Thursday, January 29th, 2009
SAN JOSE, CA - AUGUST 8, 2005: (FILE) The Cis...
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Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems had a good run together, but the relationship is headed toward a rocky future, as both giants move forward with plans to steal away business from each other’s core markets.

The showdown between the two Silicon Valley titans and long-time partners may not evolve into all-out warfare immediately.  But recent developments are clearly realigning what was once a cozy relationship and are setting the pair up for an epic collision.

The world’s largest PC-maker announced a slate of news around the HP ProCurve business that includes a new class of switches for data centers, new data center management software and a new program called HP ProCurve ONE, which optimizes corporate applications for HP’s networking infrastructure.

The news helps counter recent reported moves by Cisco this month to expand into data centers by entering the server market, one of HP’s core businesses.  Cisco is working on a server product that will incorporate switching, application processing and virtualization software in one piece of hardware, according to several reports.

The two are converging on the data center, trying to create an end-to-end offering for the large facilities that house computer and telecommunications systems.  Cisco has been strong on the networking side, connecting the data centers, while HP has been a major seller of the servers that populate the facilities.  Now, both are trying to be the primary vendor for customers as they build their centers.

Are end to end solutions really best for the datacenter, and can one vendor be great in everything?  How do customers feel about going to a networking manufacturer for their servers and vice-versa?

 

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