IBM, Sun deal on the rocks

Rejection of lowered offer leads IBM to withdraw its bid.

IBM Corp. has withrdrawn its $7 billion bid for Sun Micrsosystems after Sun’s board declined to accept a reduced offer, the New York Times is reporting.

Negotiations have been going on for weeks and with the collapse, questions are being raised about Sun’s future, the Times said. Sun had been looking for a suit for months and the failure of the IBM deal could mean it stick to its solo business model.

The deal had kicked off speculation that other companies such as Cisco, Dell and Hewlett-Parckard would have pursue other acqusitions to hold IBM at bay. The deals also faced regulatory scrutiny in the area of mainframes storage and Unix servers.

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