BackSun Microsystems Announces Agreement to Acquire innotek, Expanding Sun xVM Reach to the Developer Desktop
Free and Open Source VirtualBox Desktop Virtualization Available for All Major Operating Systems
SANTA CLARA, CA February 12,
2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced that it has
entered into a stock purchase agreement to acquire innotek, the provider of the
leading edge, open source virtualization software called VirtualBox. By enabling
developers to more efficiently build, test and run applications on multiple
platforms, VirtualBox will extend the Sun xVM platform onto the desktop and
strengthen Sun's leadership in the virtualization market. This software is
available for all major operating systems at
www.virtualbox.org and www.openxvm.org.
With over four million downloads since January 2007, innotek's open source
VirtualBox product has been quickly established as one of the leading developer
desktop virtualization platforms. Now, as part of the Sun xVM portfolio,
VirtualBox will have the support of Sun's global development community, field
resources and partners to make VirtualBox even more compelling to developers and
end users, driving greater adoption across a broad set of communities.
VirtualBox enables desktop or laptop PCs running the Windows, Linux, Mac or
Solaris operating systems to run multiple, different operating systems
side-by-side, switching between them with just a click of the mouse. This allows
software developers to more easily build multi-tier or cross-platform
applications, or power-users to take advantage of applications that may not be
available for their base operating system of choice.
"VirtualBox provides Sun with the perfect complement to our recently announced
Sun xVM Server product," said Rich Green, executive vice president, Sun
Software. "Where Sun xVM Server is designed to enable dynamic IT at the heart of
the datacenter, VirtualBox is ideal for any laptop or desktop environment and
will align perfectly with Sun's other developer focused assets such as GlassFish,
OpenSolaris, OpenJDK and soon MySQL as well as a wide range of community open
source projects, enabling developers to quickly develop, test and deploy the
next generation of applications."
VirtualBox is open source, and can be freely downloaded without the hassle of
payment or frustrating license keys at
virtualbox.org or
openxvm.org. The download is less than 20
megabytes and the software is easily installed on any modern, x86 architecture
laptop or desktop system running Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris operating
systems, in just minutes. Supported guest operating systems include all versions
of Windows from 3.1 to Vista, Linux 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, Solaris x86, OS/2,
Netware and DOS.
The Sun xVM family of products uniquely integrates virtualization and management
to help customers better manage both physical and virtualized assets across
heterogeneous environments. Previously announced products in the Sun xVM line
include Sun xVM Server and Sun xVM OpsCenter. Sun xVM Server is a datacenter
grade, bare-metal virtualization engine with advanced features such as live VM
migration and dynamic self-healing, and can consolidate Windows, Linux and
Solaris operating system instances. Sun xVM Ops Center is a unified management
infrastructure for both physical and virtual assets in the datacenter. Sun has
announced partnerships and endorsements for xVM with Microsoft, RedHat, Intel,
AMD, Symantec and Quest Software. More information about Sun xVM solutions can
be found at: http://www.sun.com/xvm.
The agreement to acquire innotek follows Sun's announcement on January 16 of a
definitive agreement to acquire MySQL, the world's most popular open source
database. These acquisitions reaffirm Sun as the largest commercial open source
contributor.
The stock purchase agreement to acquire innotek is subject to customary closing
conditions and is expected to be completed during the third quarter of Sun's
2008 fiscal year. The terms of the deal were not disclosed as the transaction is
not material to Sun's earnings per share.
About innotek
innotek is an internally funded software company located in Stuttgart, Germany
with offices in Dresden, Berlin and the Russian Federation. Its team of
international specialists has focused entirely on the development of high-tech
system software. innotek has been at the forefront of PC virtualization
technology since 2001 and now staffs Europe's largest and most experienced team
of PC software virtualization experts with numerous Fortune 500 and government
customers.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace.
Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- Sun drives
network participation through shared innovation, community development and open
source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at
http://sun.com. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo
and Java are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in
the US and other countries.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include statements
regarding VirtualBox extending Sun's xVM platform onto the desktop and
strengthening Sun's leadership in the virtualization market, Sun support making
VirtualBox even more compelling to developers and end users and driving greater
adoption across a broad set of communities, VirtualBox aligning perfectly with
Sun's other developer focused assets, the expected completion of the transaction
and the timing of such completion. Such statements are just predictions and
involve risks and uncertainties such that actual results and performance may
differ materially. Factors that might cause such a difference include the
inability to consummate the transaction and the failure to successfully
integrate the innotek assets and employees into Sun. These and other risks are
detailed from time to time in Sun's periodic reports that are filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including Sun's annual report on Form 10-K
for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007 and Sun's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q
for the fiscal quarters ended September 30, 2007 and December 30, 2007.