School of Management Professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, chairman of the Information Systems Department, says Oracle acquiring Sun Microsystems after Sun’s talks with IBM broke down could be an industry-leading move.

“Oracle has been quietly developing and refining its capabilities for integrating acquisitions – especially PeopleSoft, Siebel, and BEA Systems.  These gave Oracle an edge in terms of extracting value while ruthlessly reducing costs.  It appears Oracle is relying on that history to make Sun mesh well.

“This will be a big test with about 30,000 additional employees (nearly 40% of Oracle’s current employment).  If Oracle can pull this off and streamline the combined product portfolio, it will emerge as a serious contender as the industry transitions to cloud computing.”