[ID:nLL531667] "We're sort of relieved," said a 39-year-old hardwaremanager and 12-year veteran of the company. "There was a lot ofbad press with Sun being up for sale, desperately looking for abuyer. It hurt business and it hurt earnings." Where IBM conjured up images of a mass of navy-blue suits,Sun employees see Oracle as a compatriot. "The employees run in the same social circles as Sunemployees," the manager said.

Few companies embody the rise and fall of dot-com as muchas Sun, whose name stands for Stanford University Network andwhose campus resembles that of the college, with apalmtree-lined drive leading up to a grassy courtyard andclocktower. If the $7 billion deal worth $9.50 a share is approved byshareholders and regulators, it could rescue Sun's earnings andbolster Oracle's position against rivals such as Cisco Systems(CSCO.O), IBM, and Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N). "We're calling this the clash of the titans year," saidBrent Bracelin, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. By buying Sun at a sky-high premium, 10 cents more thanwhat sources have said IBM offered and therefore likely to beattractive to shareholders, Oracle would bring an end to thego-it-alone warhorse identity of a company that shed virtuallyits entire stock value in under a decade. [ID:nN20398681] THE END OF A BRILLIANT ERA Sun has struggled since the dot-com bust in the early 2000sand in November said it would lay off up to 6,000 of its staff,or 15 to 18 percent of its workforce.

Its shares peaked in 2000 at just under $260, but were onlyat about $9 even after a 37 percent surge on Monday Theyclosed at $9.21 on Tuesday, up less than 1 percent. But in headier days, the company -- led by firebrandco-founder and Harvard-Stanford alumnus Scott McNealy -- tookon Microsoft (MSFT.O). McNealy -- who grew Sun from a Silicon Valley start-up to aglobe-spanning firm with 38,000 employees -- called his rival'sproprietary Windows software "a giant hairball" and touted hisown open-software philosophy He lost. Windows went on to dominate the PC platform andMicrosoft eclipsed the firm in size and market share.

But thatsame fight bred comradeship between McNealy and Oracle ChiefExecutive Larry Ellison, as the two battled a common enemy. Though acquisitions often mean layoffs, and this one willbe compounded by one of the worst economic crises in history,many felt their jobs would be safer with Oracle than with IBM. "With IBM there was much more concern about layoffs becauseof the amount of overlap," said a 30-year-old hardware engineerwho has been with the company 3-1/2 years. But one 20-year veteran was more cautious, saying it wasunclear what Ellison meant to do with Sun's hardware business "The first question Oracle can ask is ... why not makeeverything Intel-compatible?" he said, wondering aloud ifOracle might sell the hardware division Bracelin does not think that will happen.

"The only way that Oracle would be able to generate thatmeaningful of a level of profitability is if they kept aportion of the hardware business and more importantly the threeto four billion dollars in maintenance on that hardware." (Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing by Edwin Chan, GaryHill) Stocks. STERLING, Va., April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Current Analysis today announced thelaunch of its Eco-Sustainability Tracker Advisory Report series. The AdvisoryReports are intended to build a timeline that tracks significant greenmarketing programs/initiatives. In doing so, this will establish some contextthrough which ongoing environmental sustainability initiatives can be moreconsistently evaluated.The initial Advisory Report analyzes Green Market Developments from Q4 2008through approximately the end of Q1 2009.