Wednesday, January 20, 2010

First Solid Look at Oracle + Sun?

Since the announcement of Oracle's intent to buy Sun 9 months ago (20 April 2009), many of us have been only able to speculate on what this means for all things Java. During this relatively long period of time, we've had some clues such as Oracle's advertisement aimed at "Sun Customers", the closely covered events and announcements at 2009 JavaOne, the Oracle Buys Sun slides, and the Reuters interview with Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison.

The European Union's concerns with Oracle's acquisition of Sun seem to have been addressed, so it is not all that surprising that we're starting to hear more. The potential for the most clear view into Oracle's plans for Sun's assets may lie in the just-announced Oracle+Sun Strategy event scheduled for 9 am to 2 pm Pacific Time on 27 January 2010 (the same day that is the EU's deadline for their regulatory approval of the acquisition). According to the press release, the event will be broadcast globally.

The press release also states that "product roadmaps" and the "strategy for the combined companies" will be outlined in this event. I am certain that the blogosphere and other media formats will be abuzz with coverage, analysis, conspiracy theories, innuendos, and so forth following this event, but I think many of us hope to better understand what this all means for the future of Java. Hopefully we will know quite a bit more about all of this within a week's time.

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