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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems

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To: H. Wai who wrote (10307)	7/6/1998 11:35:00 AM
From: Howard Armstrong	Read Replies (2) of 64865

Acquiring NetDynamics is stupid. NetDynamics is a Java application development tool and application server (software that is supposed to make Java run faster). Is SUNW admitting that they were unable to write an application server on their own? Are they admitting that something is seriously wrong with Java ... that it has big performance and reliability problems? There are lots of unanswered questions: 1) NetDynamics completely relies on Visgenic Visibroker (CORBA orb). Visigenic is now part of Inprise (aka Borland), who also is doing a Java application server and is therefore now a competitor! How can you buy a company that relies on software from a competitor? 2) Is it really a good idea to make one of the most innovative Java companies (Inprise) an enemy? Weblogic, Silverstream and other innovative Java start-ups are also now competitors. Isn't SUNW undermining the whole purpose of Java ... openness? How in the world is SUNW going to claim that Java is an "open architecture" when they've made so many enemies of other Java companies? 3) I've used the NetDynamics 4.0 product, and it's quite buggy. SUNW is taking on big customer problems with this acquisition. 4) NetDynamics was actively shopping the company around. If you are trying to sell the company, something must be really wrong. How in the world could they be worth $170 million? 5) The NetDynamics product is very proprietary ... an application developed in NetDynamics must run inside the NetDynamics server ... it cannot easily be ported to non-NetDynamics environments. The Java API of NetDynamics is very complex and proprietary. It will be very difficult to integrate this product in with other things Javasoft is doing. This again undermines the "open" advantage of Java. 6) SUNW cannot expect much in the way of new revenue from this product. NetDynamics only had about $13 million in revenue in 1997. I think that most high-tech acquisitions are signs of trouble, and very few of them work out. You don't go out and spend this much money on questionable technology unless your own technology has even bigger problems. Something must really be wrong with Javasoft, and perhaps Java in general, and this does not bode well for SUNW. Hey SUNW, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd be happy to sell you for $170 million ....

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