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Article

Oracle Cracks Open a Piggybank To Pay for Sun

Oracle sold $4.5 billion worth of debt last week, intending to use at least some of the money for its acquisition of Sun
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
July 6, 2009 04:15 PM EDT
Reads:
 2,054

Oracle sold $4.5 billion worth of debt last week, intending to use at least some of the money for its acquisition of Sun.

It'll be laying out roughly $7.4 billion in cash to buy all of Sun's outstanding shares but with what Sun will have left in the bank after its debts are paid the purchase is expected to cost Oracle only about $5.6 billion.

What it doesn't use for Sun is earmarked for other acquisitions and general corporate purposes, Oracle said.

It raised the money after the Justice Department asked for more information about the proposed merger, extending its normal 30-day review.

Oracle's outside lawyers claimed the review was going smashingly and "all that's left is one narrow issue about the way rights to Java are licensed that is never going to get in the way of the deal." They are still expecting the takeover to close this summer.

Although second requests are fairly unusual, Oracle's acquisition of Sun was supposed to present less of an antitrust issue than if IBM had actually gone ahead and bought the joint. That could have been a deal breaker, which is exactly what Sun was afraid of opening the door to Oracle.

Oracle ostensibly did the deal to get its hands on Java.

The acquisition also has to clear the European Commission, which will probably get whatever Java-related details - or notice of any concessions - the DOJ wants. Oracle said it would file the papers with Brussels this month seeking clearance. Normally an EC review takes 25 days.

Sun shareholders are supposed to vote on the acquisition July 16.

Published July 6, 2009 – Reads 2,054
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More Stories By Maureen O'Gara

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025.

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