Will the Sun-Microsoft settlement really change the competitive landscape? Or is it just a last-ditch Sun bailout?
The initial shock is over. Sun Microsystems and Microsoft agreed on Friday to settle all outstanding antitrust and patent issues between the two, in exchange for Microsoft shelling out $1.6 billion-plus to Sun.
Now the real questions begin: Will this agreement really change the competitive landscape? Or is it simply a way for Sun — which, incidentally announced the same day that it expects a hefty loss in its fiscal third quarter and is cutting 3,300 jobs to help offset it — to get some quick cash? (Not to mention a strategy via which Microsoft effectively will hush one of the main proponents of the European Union antitrust case against the Redmond software giant?)
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