Sun Will Become Part Of Oracle Because It Failed To Notice Subtle Change


Sun Microsystems has a storied past in the era of big-system computing. It was the “.” in dot com and the originator of the phrase the “network is the computer.”

Now it is to become part of Oracle and one reason is that it failed to react to subtle changes reshaping the industry, says former Executive Vice President of Global Sales Operations Masood Jabbar.

Oracle agreed to buy Sun in April after edging out rival suitor IBM, and on July 16 Sun shareholders will vote on whether to seal the deal.

“I’m deeply, deeply saddened by it because we built a great franchise,” Jabbar said on Saturday during an address at the OPENforum 2009 conference in Mountain View.

Jabbar said he remembers extraordinary times at Sun, such as renting out the Palace of Versailles in France to hold a costume party for his sales force. He boasts of flying Elton John to Hawaii to entertain his top performers.

People don’t know “how hard we played,” he said.

But while Sun worked hard, it didn’t excel when things change very slowly, he added. “That is the cancer in a company that people don’t detect, most people don’t see.”

These change took place both inside Sun and outside, where more powerful low-cost computers stole business from Sun’s high-end boxes.

Jabbar offered advice for tomorrow’s Suns:

First, be paranoid. Second, “when it ain’t broke, break it.” That way, you can fix it correctly, he said.

Third, “you must change before you have to change,” he said. And finally, pay attention to co-founder Bill Joy’s technology rule: innovation will occur and probably elsewhere.