Sun Seeks Benefits of Bundling with StorageTek Buy

While taking many by surprise, Sun Microsystems' purchase of StorageTek is largely believed to be a good move for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company.

There are detractors:
The early cry has the Sun/StorageTek deal pegged as a marriage of losers. On one hand, you have the depressed, former server king thumping down a multi-billion dollar storage bet. On the other, you have a slow growing tape storage-focused relic. Both companies face frightening market share losses in their core businesses and hover just below or just above breakeven. In short, not the type of union shareholders moisten over at night.

It's just about impossible to say how the new Sun will shake out. The true nature of this deal won't become evident for a couple of years. In the meantime, however, a couple of things are certain. Sun didn't return cash to investors, kick off a massive layoff session or acquire a software company as the more pragmatic types would like. Its contrarian buy has guaranteed several months of negative reports and stories. And the timing couldn't be worse. Sun just unveiled a new marketing campaign, complete with a new "S" symbol and the shockingly horrific "Share" slogan.