Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems

Oracle will merger Sun Microsystems, for $9.50 a share, or about $7.4 billion.

Historically, most of Oracle’s database sales have occurred in tandem with Sun’s servers. Over the past few years, however, Oracle has moved to make Hewlett-Packs and Dell stronger allies, as Sun’s business has declined.

“This combination is a natural evolution of our relationship and will be an industry-defining event,” Mr. McNealy said.

That issue may not overhang a deal between Sun and Oracle, who’s main business is database software. Sun Solaris is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle’s largest business.