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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JC Jaros who wrote (40208)	1/8/2001 6:29:41 PM
From: Charles Tutt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

Did somebody blow a whistle or something? I didn't expect it to close up, and it's up more after hours. The futures also look strong. Is this an efficient market? (not in MY book) JMHO. Charles Tutt (TM)

To: JC Jaros who wrote (40208)	1/10/2001 5:07:38 AM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

IBM snags Sun customer - Big Blue chalks up another win in ongoing server war with Sun Micro By Staff Writer Richard Richtmyer January 9, 2001: 6:14 p.m. ET NEW YORK (CNNfn) - IBM, which has been relentless in its efforts to wrest control of the market for Unix servers from market leader Sun Microsystems, has snatched away another of its rival's customers. Ultramar Diamond Shamrock, one of North America's largest independent refining and marketing companies, plans to replace all of the existing Sun servers and storage systems used to power its business operations with competing systems from IBM, CNNfn.com has learned. Big Blue is expected to officially announce the contract on Wednesday, which is the latest high-profile corporation it has added to its roster of enterprise customers at Sun's expense. For more than a year, IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates) has been turning up the heat on Sun (SUNW: Research, Estimates), which is currently the world's leading supplier of Unix servers, so-named for the operating system they run. As part of that effort, IBM recently revamped its entire server line, unifying them all under the "eServer" brand. The company also unified its server sales force, and recently said it plans to spend $250 million marketing the eServers in 2001. So far, IBM has lured several high-profile Sun customers over to its side as well. In May, Network Solutions, which administers the Web's largest domain-name database, purchased 20 of M80 servers from IBM to help it handle the vast amount of data that flows through its systems. Other corporate customers IBM has touted as buyers of its Unix servers over the past year include Federal Express, Budget Rent-a-Car and Credit Suisse First Boston. A Sun spokesman said that while IBM may have won some contracts with them, those companies have not abandoned Sun and remain good customers. Tim Dougherty, director of e-business marketing at IBM, said landing those customers, as well as its most recent deal with UDS, shows that it is making good on its vow to unseat Sun as the Unix server king. "A year ago September ... we told the world that we're going after Sun and we're going after them in a big way," Dougherty said. "This is another proof point along the way." With about $15 billion in annual revenues and more than 20,000 employees, Texas-based UDS represents one of the largest enterprises ever to move its server and storage from Sun to IBM, Dougherty said. UDS (UDS: Research, Estimates) chose a total of ten IBM servers -- two RS/6000 S80's and eight RS/6000 M80's – to replace 50 Sun servers. The new servers run AIX, which is IBM's version of the Unix operating system, and will drive some 60 different software applications and databases. They will be responsible for functions including enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, human resources, refinery maintenance, environmental tracking, bar coding, point of sale, credit card reconciliation and product movement. The company also has installed an IBM "Shark" disk storage system capable of storing 5.3 trillion bytes, or terabytes, of data. Neither IBM nor UDS would provide a dollar figure for the contract, but sources estimated it to be worth roughly $5 million, including hardware, software and services. Executives from Sun Microsystems were unavailable for comment. IBM shares ended Tuesday's session down $1 at $92.56. At that level, they stood 31.4 percent below their 12-month high of $134.93. As have most technology stocks, IBM shares have fallen sharply recently as investors brace for what is shaping up to be a weak fourth-quarter earnings season. Meanwhile, Sun shares rose $1.25 to $29.44. That's 54 percent below their high of $64.65. The company's shares have fallen under pressure in recent weeks following a downgrade by Bear Stearns and rising concerns about the impact the cooling U.S. economy will have on its business moving ahead. cnnfn.cnn.com