Oracle buys Sun Microsystems

WASHINGTON - SOFTWARE developer Oracle has reached a US$5.6 billion(S$8.4 billion) deal to purchase Sun Microsystems, the two companies announced Monday in a joint communique.

'The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems,' Oracle's chief executive Larry Ellison said in the statement.

'Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system - applications to disk - where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves,' he said.

'Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up.'

Sun chairman Scott McNealy hailed the merger as 'an industry-defining event.'

Company officials said Sun's board of directors have unanimously sanctioned the deal which is expected to close this summer pending approval from the company's stockholders and federal regulators.