some commentary on

sun's recently-announced purchase of storagetek.

now i'm no sun expert, but even i can see that this is sun's last big gamble. using $4.1B of its $7.4B cash hoard, sun is still left with some serious firepower, but if this acquisition fizzles, sun is in deep sh*t (not that it's not already up the creek).

as a casual sun-watcher, i've got to say that the company seems to be casting about for something to re-ignite its growth. partnering with msft, getting into grid computing, buying storage companies...either the guys at sun are very smart and have an integrated strategy, or they are just looking for something, anything, to make sun relevant. i'm sure they diligenced the hell out of this deal, though, so they have to have their reasons: i'm just as curious as anyone else to see how this changes the competitive landscape. after all, acquisitions have no meaning unless they can change the rules of the game.