I think that Sun-Oracle will get bogged down with supporting/developing too many software products with this merger unless they drop some of them. Yes, Oracle currently handles quite a few software products in its own right, but most are somewhat maintainable by similar shared code bases, or their basis in open source solutions. What will happen to these competing products? Does Oracle pull a GM/Chevrolet deal where they start selling the same product under different names?

Not to mention Java. Will Oracle continue supporting the OpenJDK effort, will they allow *nux operating systems to actually distribute Java without using gcj.

Greg, real good question. The jury is still out, obviously. Too soon to tell. There seem to be a lot of questions and overlapping product.
mysql vs. oracle
VirtualBox,Solaris Containers vs. Oracle VM
Sun Clustering vs. Oracle CRS
I’m sure I’m missing others. Doesn’t Sun have a LDAP-directory?

It’s awesome news for those of us who want to see Oracle on Solaris thrive!

It will be interesting to see how this will affect Exadata product direction and H-P’s reaction…

Disaster for the small investors who bought the shares at higher prices. The price offered per share is pittance. Good for the executive management team – they are getting millions in severance. Selling a company off at market bottom is stupidity unless Sun has no confidence to weather this downturn without a stronger partner.