Intel Corp. CEO Paul Otellini said this week that Sun Microsystems Inc. was trying to find a buyer for months before talks heated up with International Business Machines Corp.
His comments appeared in a transcript of an employee question and answer session on stock option repricing that was held on Monday and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
Otellini was asked what he thought of IBM's (NYSE:IBM) reported $6.5 billion offer for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun (Nasdaq: JAVA) and whether it was spurred by the entry into the data server market by San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO).
"I think cheap Sun price—a low price spurred a lot of interest," he is quoted in the filing as having said.
Sun's shares closed Wednesday at $7.85, down 2.61 percent, after doubling in price to trade at more than $9 a share after news of the IBM talks were first reported earlier this month.
IBM is one of the Triangle's largest employers, with 11,000 people at its Research Triangle Park operations. The company is cutting jobs today, according to media reports and a union group.
"I can tell you that Sun was shopped around the valley and around the world in the last few months," Otellini told employees. "A lot of companies got calls or visits on buying some or all the assets of the company. It looks like IBM is in the hunt now. And at a hundred and some odd percent premium, I suspect they’ll get it."
Thursday, March 26, 2009
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