StorageTek Buy - ???

So Sun buys StorageTek.

Huh? I just don't get this.

There's not an awful lot of overlap in product terms. Sun already resell StorageTek kit to fill in the gaps in their storage line. (And if you take the 3rd party stuff out, Sun's product line is full of gaps.) So I don't see much consolidation of product and hence cost reductions.

Also, I can't see how StorageTek kit is going to fare being sold into environments containing other vendors' kit. As I see it, an independent vendor is going to be more credible than one owned by a competitor, so StorageTek/Sun is going to sell less kit into other environments and, while it may sell more kit into Sun environments the results is a net loss.

I don't see any organisational benefits from the merger, and I can't see it helping sales.

So why buy StorageTek at all? Why shell out the cash? (And it's a lot of cash!) The Fujitsu (SPARC chip) and Hitachi (high end storage) deals solved a number of problems without dipping deep into their pockets.

Personally, if I had all that cash burning a hole in my pocket I would have gone after some of the smaller high-tech companies that are developing emerging technologies. In areas like InfiniBand or next generation ethernet, for example. Or innovative system builders like they did with the Kealia acquisition.

But having said all that, Sun's track record in making a success of the assets it's acquired isn't good. Time will tell if the Kealia bet works out (so far, it looks good but is taking its time to mature), but I can't think of any others that haven't sunk without trace.