TO CAPTAIN KANGAROO

Sun's Forecast Sunnier Than Anticipated

This is the company everyone loves to hate . Maybe its envy of their ubiquitous software , Java Solaris and now MYsql , or maybe it is their past battle with Microsoft and all those verbal jabs by co-founder Scott Mcnealy . With their open source strategy all the proprietary software vendors must be wishing that Sun would go away . Oracle has to hate the fact that they bought MYsql and I suspect that some tension between the companies has occurred . Ask yourself what technology Dell has contributed to the Industry besides their fast food like production line . As a matter of fact all the big guns are using Solaris and all except Hewlet Packard has signed a licensing agreement even though they too are offering it . Java is in everything except the Iphone which all though is rising is still a small fraction of the overall cell phone business . Sun's CEO has a vision that the developer comunity loves because it allows them to adopt and adapt to any and all environments , write once run everywhere . The challenge as I see it is their marketing which has frankly been dismal . Now that Grantham has left for HPQ that should get better , watchout HPQ . At current stock price a take over or hostile buyout is indeed a possibility but hopefully Sun can thwart any attempts to do that . Any suitors would most likely be the same companies that Sun's initiatives are targeting . A takeover would sell off its parts , shut down open source and pocket the near 4 billion in cash . This would be disastrous for the industry at large as proprietary code would once again rule the day by fragmenting the developer comunity . I applaud their layoffs and continued right sizing which if done several years ago would have stopped the precipitous stock price slide that we have seen . Positive cash flow every quarter but one is a better measure of their viability than current stock price . Obviously I am a believer in their future future success and Schwartz's vision going forward .