Sun Said To Table Linux Purchase

Sun Microsystems has apparently backed away from its efforts to acquire a Linux software distribution — for now.

The Santa Clara, Calif., network computer maker had been looking to augment its enterprise portfolio, sources told internetnews.com this week.

But internetnews.com has learned that preliminary discussions between top Sun and MontaVista executives became terse, stalling because MontaVista CEO Jim Ready may not be ready to sell.

“They are still in discussions, but people were telling me that Sun does not get the full value of MontaVista,” a source familiar with the talks said.

So what is “full value” for MontaVista (if that is the indeed the sticking point)?

In a broad sense, the carrier-grade market is relatively untouched by the Linux companies and Microsoft (Quote, Chart), making MontaVista a good fit for Sun. Some analysts suggest that Sun is not able to go head-to-head on the server side — enterprise or SMB customers — with Red Hat and IBM and there’s little chance they will be doing well on the desktop using MontaVista.

Rest of Article