Coreix Managed Servers

Moving more quickly than some analysts and legal experts had predicted, US regulators have approved Oracle’s plan to acquire Sun Microsystems in a US$7.4 billion deal that would create a powerful new force in the market for data centre equipment and software.

The deal still requires approval from antitrust officials of the European Union. But the action by the US Department of Justice, disclosed by Oracle on Thursday, is a major step toward completion of the purchase. European officials have said they will decide by early September whether to approve the deal or launch a more extensive investigation.

Source: iStock Analyst

At the annual Dell analyst day, Dell executives say the company is looking to change its product mix, moving more upstream into the data centre with a solutions-based approach and away from its heavy reliance on PC sales. The executives, including CEO Michael Dell, say this will be accomplished through a combination of targeted acquisitions, partnerships and organic growth. However, while they say the move away from reliance on PCs is key, it is unclear how easy such a move will be, given that PCs still account for about half of Dell’s revenues. Dell also says the company won’t offer an all-in-one data centre solution, as Cisco and HP have.

Dell is going to continue moving away from its PC roots and deeper into bigger – and higher-margin – areas, particularly services and the data centres of large enterprises.

Source: eWeek