Playing in the Titanic Orchestra.

Have you ever thought how should have been a member of the Titanic Orchestra? They played all along while the ship was sinking, until the end, the didn't stop doing it despite they knew their fate.
Well, if you want to know what it feels like, I'd suggest you to join Sun, but Oracle has stopped all hiring of new employees (also firings, although it is too late for so many good people...).
We know our days are numbered, but here we are, today we'll post the quarterly results (analysts are debating between those who think we'll post loses, and those who say we'll post huge loses).

I wonder how would MLP look with one of those hats. With Larry you should not play those kinds of jokes. But with Jonathan...

Well, here we are, waiting to our fate to come, relying in Oracle's mercy, as from our leaders at Sun only silence can be expected.
Oh, I really liked the SORE proposed new ticked for Sun. Soracle, what an occurrence... Larry is still laughing (then he added something like 'we'll make nobody will ever remember the Sun Microsystems name' or something like that; this is what happens when he spends too much time at the Gym).

Well, at least it will be funny to see those guys at Sony-Ericsson, LG, Sony, etc., that are using Java for some peanuts when the Oracle sales reps. will tell them about the new license conditions... this will be a quite funny moment.

Another funny moment will be that related to the open-source community, MySQL and free software in general.
Over all with everything related to opensourcing Java. Dear friends of IBM, as you are one of the most interested people about this subject, not quoting exactly what Larry told me the other day, but trying to transmit his idea, he commented something like this: "Opensource? My ass!!" Well, I'm not sure if this was the case, a golf ball hitted me in the head this Sunday and since then I cannot hear pretty well, but you can see Oracle's huge and clear history of opensourcing software....

Jonathan, you missed you last Five Minute Friday (crap) Session, so I'm suggesting a new leaflet to announce the next one. This piece of advice, just for free, my friend:

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final courtain; My friend, I'll say it clear, I'll state my case, of which I'm certain. I've lived, a life that't full, I've travelled each and every highway, and more, much more thant this, I did it... (rehearsing for my performance with the Titanic Orchestra).

What will you do in the shareholders meeting?

Well, it seems that my sessions with Dr. Jack Daniels are going to the same place where most of the jobs of the people working at Sun by now, so I decided to change therapist.

Meanwhile, as I try to defeat my growing depression, I'll leave you a new poll. As you know, the shareholders have to approve (or not...) the merger of the company with Oracle (yes, I know, they are buying us out of the market, but if I say merger is less painful). After the gentleman (I am making a terrible effort not to calling them crappy bastards, as I'm a gentleman too, I won't) of Southeastern Asset Management sold its 22% of the company, we don't know to whom, there is a little bit of uncertainty about the result of the voting, so, I'm asking you, fellow shareholders of Sun shares: Will you vote for or _AGAINST_ the selling of the company to Oracle?
I won't tell you my vote to not bias your decision, although I guess you already know what I'll be doing...

Have a nice weekend.

The Rats Abandon the Ship

Well, what can I say, I just read the comments you, fellow workers, left on my previous article. I'm humbled, I'm thankful for coming and reading me, I'm amazed, what more can I say... Thank you.
(fake) Anil, I count on you too, I hope to see you around, and maybe one day we'll have a few beers too.

Yesterday I was so depressed I thought of abandoning the blog and not coming again, but after some therapy with Mr. Daniels, Jack Daniels, I've realized that only the rats abandon the ship when they think it is sinking. I'm not a rat (perhaps a little mouse, but not a rat), so I'll keep on coming around here -when I take a rest from brushing up my resume and sending it to all the headhunters I know- to say what I think and to hear what you say. Thank you again folks. If (real) Scooter had the guts, what an army he could lead!

Well, talking about RATS (Real Asset managemenT traderS -no, I'm not calling them rats, I'd never insult anybody, no matter how mad I feel, I'd never call those people scum, pundits, bandits, traitors, nor any other offensive word you could imagine- ): Southeastern Asset Management (I won't call them SAM 'cause I have a friend called Sam and I appreciate him too much to compare him with those "gentleman") has sold ALL the shares they had from Sun, at prices between 9.04 and 9.09 dollars.

Well, maybe I'm not quite good at maths, but this means that if they had waited until the closure of the Oracle deal they'd earned about $80 million more... not to mention that they bought the cheapest Sun's shares at about $12 (that makes about $500 million...).
Well, I can earn a new living as financial advisor: dear customers, don't trust in O. Mason Hawkins (the man that leads that band of smugglers, I mean, investors), at least leaving the money to Mr. Madoff you had the hope to get your money back. With Southeastern you know you'll loose it.
I hope they don't have any position in Jack Daniels, as we all have seen what they meant when they said they were a long-term investor in Sun...

So, after the maths lesson, now we have to call a detective to find out what is happening here... Why have Southeaster sold all the shares so soon, loosing so many money? Aren't they afraid of the legal actions their stakeholders may take against them, as we were threatened after the (speculated) rejection of the IBM offer.

Maybe we are just told a part of the story, what they want us to swallow. Maybe it wasn't Southeaster who were selling the company to each and every company in the World and have just taken the money as soon as they had an opportunity, as they are not sure at last if the deal will be completed at last (which, to certain extend would be a relieve for me in the personal side, but would be the final lost of credibility for the company).
Maybe it was just a couple of old friends, a powerful CEO and an ex-powerful ex-CEO, spending a weekend sailing in the gorgeous yatch of the CEO, talking about the glory days, and how they could merge their companies to become the next Borg. In the meantime, they'd only had to allow the hardware maker to decline little by little, assimilating competitors of the software maker to avoid suspicions from the antitrust authorities. They'd choose a dumb or better, a dumber CEO to be the puppet in the hands of the ex-CEO, so the deciline of the hardware maker would be, apparently, irreversible, and so nobody would be opposite to the merger. The final dramatic act would be to deceive the Borg, or even the Original Borg, so it would be neccesary the appearance of a white knight (well, or a red and white one) to save the struggling hardware maker, and thus putting a happy ending to the story.
I guess after this job as a blogger they'll offer me to write the new Harry Potter book, at least.

Well, this is just a story, a speculation, and as you know, Sun donesn't comment on speculations. Now that the biggest part of the shares was sold, and we don't know who, it would be fun to see the acquisiton rejected in the shareholders meeting... This would mean that we would see our marketing team doing something we never saw them doing in the past 10 years: working.

Now that we are talking about ships, I'll add some comments about the Titanic and the pathetic music band playing while the ship is sinking, as if nothing was happening at all.
By the way, as I was in therapy with mr. Daniels I lost the town-hall with Oracle at the Menlo Park Campus (yes, I know it was at 8 AM, but Mr. Daniels wakes up early for his sessions...), so if you attended I guess it will be fun if you leave your comments and impressions on what they said they are gonna do with Sun.

May the force be with you (never the schwartz).

Sun is Dead. Long Live the New Borg!!

So, this is the end (or quite so, sometimes miracles happen). After the Borg and the Original Borg, Sun has died to create the New Borg with Oracle.

You don't know how sad I feel at this very moment. I, like most of you, had really believed that Sun's management was working hard because the company was viable. Why so much suffering, so many people fired, so many restructuring, to give all away at last?

Indeed this is a process that has been planned from a long, long, long time ago: the MySQL acquisition was only an excuse to eliminate a long-term threat (as if Sun had eliminated Linux before it became a real threat to Solaris; Oracle learnt from our mistakes). The BEA acquisition was another way to pave the road (Sun couldn't buy BEA without loosing credibility, so they had to do it at that time to now consolidate that mddleware with Sun's portfolio). The IBIS implantation at Sun, a complete Oracle ERP/CRM (Jonathan told you that we betted on a full Oracle solution for our CRM, so, don't say he didn't warned you...).

Well, at last, there are some positive sides: most of our hardware and Solaris employees are safe, because this is what Oracle is after: they want to become the next IBM, so they need such people.

Who are the winners?

-Oracle: With just the cash Larry had in his pocket, he has bought Java and Solaris and all the iron around Sun. And in the software area they have eliminated a formidable competitor that was eroding their efforts in middleware and Identity Management.
-Sun's board: as you already know, the members of the board are going to receive a huge amount of money for treasoning all the 35,000 employees and the uncountable number of Sun's customers.

Who are those that don't win and don't loose?

-Apparently Southeastern is loosing money, as they bought most of their share for more than $12, but they seem happy to have sold their shares by $9.50. I don't understand it...
-Hardware employees from Sun. I mentioned that before. I don't know if this acquisition is good or bad for them, so we'll let it neutral.
-IBM: A new big enemy (ORA), but an old one less (Sun), and an opportunity to increase its market share with angry Sun-Oracle customers. Business as usual.

Who are the loosers?

-Sun's software employees (IdM, Glassfish, MySQL...): Well, you should start searching for a new job... This is that 'Lando Calrissian' moment in the "The Empire Strikes Back" when he warns everybody in the Cloud City (hah, get the point?) that the Empire is there and they have to run for their lives...
-Sun's RIFed employees: Sorry pals, there are no plans to hire you back... some of you weren't saved just by 5 minutes... this is saddest part of this whole thing. The damned board don't realize they are dealing with people, this is not a fucking Monopoly Board Game...!!!
-HP: Guys, you are in a middle of an IBM-Oracle sandwich now... I think you are screwed, with no middleware, HP-UX, a kind of zombie, and just x86 hardware (and printers) to sell. Yes, you have EDS... and you'll end up as just a huge EDS, with a shorter name.
-Dell: Well, the Borg is your only hope now, if HP is not faster than you... You are more than screwed.
-Customers: Choice is over. Oracle is here to squeeze you until your last drop of blood.
-OpenSource: Well, I don't know if this is good or bad, but I don't think Oracle knows what is to give software for free or opensourcing a code... It is as easy as removing all the "community developers" that in fact are Sun's employees, and all those 'open-projects' will just die little by little.

-And me: I won't say this blog is over, but I don't think I'll be coming around so often. I have the same agreement that (real) Scott has, but I'm getting fake dollars instead of real ones, so I stay the same way: poor. This is the main problem of being a fake person. I even had prepared the eventuallity of being acquired by IBM by reserving the 'Fake Palmisano' blog... the fake Larry Ellison was already taken (and abandoned a long, long time ago, as far as I know). I don't know, maybe I'll come back to tell you how is the life of an ex-CEO in Oracle, or how Ashok does in the new company (if he is not fired). Or maybe I'll be here commenting on other marvellous happenings and news.
Well, I'll spend some days sailing, thinking, and, drinking enourmous quantities of bourbon.

God bless you. Good luck!

Homage to my loved readers

This weeks have been so intense that I needed some rest.
I just wanted to leave a post here to thank all my readers and workers, indeed co-workers, their efforts, their passion and the number of hits given to this humble blog. There was such a huge number of users accessing the blog, that I spent all the past week refusing Gaagle's offer to add advertising to my pages.
Well, I never intended to do such a thing, I'm not doing this for money, just to express myself without the restrictions imposed by the safe harbor regulations and the SEC and all that crap, and I'll keep this blog in this way (unless I really need someday the money to buy back Sun again, but I count on you, dear readers, to help me so).

Well, I think that the best thing I can do is to write some excerpts from the opinions left by you, my readers (special thanks to Mr. Anonymous, who has left most of the comments so far...).

For instance:

"...Just ignore those idiots who say contradictory statements each and every minute, and continue with the tasks which has to be done to take the company back to its glory days..."

"...that IBM are not in OUR best interest. It [is] time for a Marketing Campaign....How about
"We're BACK and here to KICK SOME IBM ASS!"..."

"...JS..."Its time for you to go!" I think Bill Clinton also said this about the first Bush...and we all thought that about the second Bush...."

".....I agree we need to announce that we are not for sale....and then act like the market leader that we are!..."

"...Keep smiling scooter....and btw when are we going to announce that we are not for sale...our customers are dying to hear it...."

"....but this is the best article I have read on this bloody mess in a while......why don;t you figure out how to blast this to the masses left within SUN.....Also cc the Board..... "

"...Hope Scooter or Ponytail will have a look at these "Basic Fundamentals of Management..."

"...what's it going to take to for our Board to realize that we have almost of all of the tools necessary for success....except you as our leader...."

"...Lets take Sun back to the market [...] all the engineers want to keep working for Sun, not for any other company, specially NOT IBM..."

"...Have you talked to Gerstner lately....he knows how to right a sinking ship.....maybe he is up for a short term contract...or maybe Martha Stewart....

SAY NO TO IBM!..."


"...Scooter....Please tell us that those Lawyers have left MPK 10 and that the Board is going to put Pony Boy out to pasture!!!..."

"...WE SAY NO TO IBM !!! [...] COME ON SCOTT , KILL THEM [...] Come back..."

"...that our top brass should read Lou Gerstners book "who says elephants can's dance!"...sure if an elephant can dance...a Pony can learn to do the right thing....SAY NO TO IBM!..."

"....then I say Go for it Scooter...you will have every SUN employee behind you to make it work!..."

Even our partners are with us:

"...Now.. go off and fight ! Godspeed with those who dare..."

Well, thanks you all again. As I said, this is not the end, it might just be the end of the beginning.

A couple of thoughts about the IBM affaire

I'm taking a rest from the Augusta's Master (I'm not allowed to play there as they say I earned enough as CEO, so I have fun watching the competitions and assessing Tiger on his return), so just wanted to write a couple of statements written by my great friend Paul Murphy (we never met, but because of the things he writes, I really appreciate, more than this, I love him!).
For instance:

What’s motivating IBM is precisely the opposite: they know they can’t compete with Sun in the marketplace and are using the opportunities created by the moral meltdown in Washington to shut Sun down via the legal and financial systems.

Or this one:

It’s easy to see what might drive IBM to this decision: they’ve got the money, anti-trust in the Obama era is just a dollar issue, Sun’s Unix licenses predate Novell’s and have more validity, and right now IBM can’t begin to compete with SPARC/Solaris on price, performance, reliability, or innovation.

The greatest thing of all is that what he writes is true.

Dear Rahul: Go and tell your people at SEMA that Sun is perfectly viable. We can easily make much more than those 9.50 per share you were about to take from the Real Borg. To achieve that we only need some peace of mind so we can focus in selling our stuff and set pace ahead of our competition in a blink. And you and your friends could help: stating that Sun is NOT for sale. Make a public statement, saying that all the IBM affaire was just a rumor (or don't say a word about it if you rather so) and say that you are confident with the future of the company. And put your money where your mouth is.
You won't regret it.

Have to get back to Augusta, seems Tiger is in trouble with his putt.

Hall of Fame and Shame and Stupid Analysts Opinions

Analysts and false journalists are funnier than ever.
Just have a look at this article by Jane Bads, very Bads indeed (I also know how to play with words, this is how I earned my reputation as a CEO, 30 years ago).
He, you call your blog Funny Business, how funny, if it wasn't because you work for CNBC I might be worry, but now I see this is a practical joke from my old friend (?) Ballmer.
Ballma, if you keep on the "stupid" article, you are not coming to my yacht this weekend. You are warned.

Jane, Ms. Bads, do you know what is stupid? To spend $4 billion buying StorageTek, another $1 billion buying MySQL, and many more acquisitions I'm not mentioning now (check the Wikipedia for a list), and then sell the company for $7 billion to a shark that is going to end with the dream of your life. Can you picture this? Here is a sample of the situation:Much love, Alburquerque.

Well, at least some of our politicians are not illiterate as some of our journalists, a fine good sample is Mr. Ritter, Governor of Colorado, that payed us a visit today. Of course he didn't meet with MLP, we don't want public servants to meet with ex-CEOs. (Ashok, don't write that this way, I cannot disclose such a kind of information in my blog. I know, I know I'm not Scott McNealy pretending not to be Scott McNealy and all that stuff, but just don't do it. And don't publish the notes I give you about what to publish or not).
What I won't tell you is that I met with Mr. Ritter, as we don't want to rise any rumor about the future of Schwartz at the company (although I did, in secret, and he encouraged me not to surrender against IBM as we are one of the major employers in Colorado).

[Unrelated note: Jonathan, Tuesday is not the day to issue the Five Minute Friday video, it is Friday. To say what you said in the video, you could have waited until Friday, even more, to the last Friday of December...]

I won't comment either the departure of Marc Tremblay to Microsoft. This could make people believe that Ballmer has any kind of interest to enter into the computer maker market (computer and real operating systems and software) and hiring Marc would be a way to hire a negotiator to integrate both businesses properly. Mista Ballma, you are such a nasty boy...

Say NO to IBM.
Say NO to Schwartz.

Where to put the dot-com dot

Dear John (uninformed) Whatever (sorry, your name is impossible to pronounce),

Yesterday I wrote about those "analysts" that don't know what a computer or a datacenter is because they never saw anyone, so imagine analyzing something as complex as the economy, even more, the economy related to the computer business. Today you tried to be sooo funny with your blog that you started playing with the words of our dot in the dot-com motto. Ha, ha, ha, I'm still laughing, over all after watching how our stocks raised today more than 6% after reading your article. Maybe this is what the investors want to tell us: to put the dot in the dot com again, or better, in the 2.0 era, as an independent and healthy company.
As I think you have a serous problem with numbers, I'll remind you that before all the IBM affaire our shares were about $4.50, and now, even after IBM dropped the deal, we are still at $6.66 (interesting number to close the session today... What does Scientology has to say about it, MLP?).

John, you are not right in your article: the worst of the options is to by acquired by IBM as this means the death of Sun and the firing of hundreds of workers. What do you think did Mr. Ritter told us in his visit? He asked, pleaded, demanded not to be bought by IBM, as this would mean that his re-election would be endangered by the number of unemployed people rising!!
What kind of a blogger are you? I'm sure you can't tell Vista from OS-X, so imagine if you dare teaching me about a business I invented more than 25 years ago. Why don't you learn from a real professional like Paul Murphy? He is well balanced, not biased, he writes the truth in his articles, and he produces a great beer too.
Paul, I love you. When I take the reigns back I count on you for the PR deparment.

John, whenever you drop by Menlo Park let me know. I'll show you where I put the the hockey stick on those who dare telling me where to put the dot. Ask MLP, he has a clear picture.
And I won't comment on the Gartner analyst that suggest that if we cannot sell the whole company we should sell it by pieces. This analyst is the one that says that "the company is too complex" and suggests that many line of products don't make sense and nobody wants them. Is that the same Gartner analyst that rated Sun and all Sun products as Positive and Strong Positive? Was he drunk when he did the first anlysis, is drunk now, has suddenly seen the light? Or is it only that they say what they think will be accepted by most of the other analysts?
Maybe the question is just money.

By the way, instead of commenting about the rumor of today, I'll advance the rumors of tomorrow: Today we, the board, are meeting to discuss the future after the no deal with IBM, as it was a rumor, and we don't comment on rumors. So the rumors about today's meeting will be spread tomorrow, no doubt about it.

Say NO to IBM.
Say NO to Schwartz.

This is not the end.

It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Oh, I love this kind of phrases, I have to include it in a speech soon (I always loved Groucho, or it was a politician who said that? In any case, a very clever man in a difficult situation).

So, first round is over, it seems that IBM quited their offer, so, now what?

First things first: the board met, and we decided not to comment on rumors, and to stand and support our CEO. Well, you know what it means when a basket of football team publicly expresses support for the coach of the team: they are asking all other coaches to send their resumes in... In this case is my resume the only one they are reviewing, of course.

Some people think that the best option for Sun is to be sold, and that this is just a game to force IBM to offer a higher offer, or an IBM move to offer a cheaper one, and that in any case Jonathan should plea the Original Borg to come back to negotiate again (a sample of suggested Jonathan's pose is in the picture: this was taken from one of his ceremonies in the Scientology church, when he pleads his God saying "you approved the IBM deal, God, why have you abandoned me? Is this a test of my faith?").

Those that say so, that we should take the money and run away, are many so-called "analysts", people that may have a MBA or something similar, and that only think about money, and usually in the wrong way. Even more, they only think as if they owned a stack of shares of Sun, and just think of minimizing damages, not knowing the real status of the company, if it is viable or not, and don't think at all about the people that have worked so hard to build Sun. Those analysts think of people as numbers, so they believe that selling Sun by $10 a share is great business as it was valued at 4.50 before this story begun (at this very moment it is 6.25, so we have even earned some value in the meantime). They don't realize, or don't want to realize, that selling Sun by $10 a share would only report a few profits to a few investors, that most investors are going to loose more than halve what they invested, and more than this, Sun would disappear forever (once bought, a company like Sun cannot live in IBM, this is stupid: is like saying that little fishes live a longer life once inside the shark that ate them), and what is worse: no less than 10,000 workers would be fired. Do you think this is a boost for the global economy? I don't think so, I'll tell my new friend Obama what against open-source this is.

In summary, if Schwartz thinks that he cannot turn Sun to profitability, and that the solution is selling the company, and he is not even able to do a decent sale (for God's sake, not IBM, you could have searched for a company with synergies!!!), we must let him go, by saying him "may the Schwartz be with you". We are in the middle of a RIF process, so saving the $11 million you used to earn will save many valuable engineers we need to gain profitability again.
While I love Spaceballs, I like most "The McNealy Strikes Back" or "Return of The Jedi-McNealy". I'll only be paid one dollar per year, and my real pay will come in the way of stock-options only if I manage to turn the company to profitability.

Second thing to do: Removing that ugly "Tech Company For Sale. Nice Prices. Ask the Board" banner placed at the entrance of our Menlo Park facilities. We must state crystal clear that Sun is not for sale, or our customers will have serious concerns about where are they spending their money on. We must give them confidence on what we do, on what we sell. We can do it, just stop playing in the boards meetings, and keep focused in profitability.


Third thing to do: Just go out and sell Sun stuff to our beloved customers. We have a lot of cash we should spend just in advertising. We are running right now a deep restructuring process to simplify the company, save money, rationalize resources and be more effective reaching our customers. Just keep focused on that.
We have the right products at the right moment, only that customers do not know it.

As soon as we give a couple of quarters of constant growth and revenues, you'll see all those analysts that today say we have to accept any offer to sell Sun, saying that they had foreseen the recovery of the most innovative company of the Valley. That happened back in the 90's when they all said we should embrace Window$ NT, and a few months later they said that they had foreseen the growth of Solaris as the key for the success of Sun.

Fourth thing to do: Read my blog. In the related entry of my blog I already suggested a few measures that have been implemented in this latest reorganization of the company. There are a few others pending (like stopping the layoffs), but I know they are the key to turn the company and to save the Sun we all love.

Hmmm, feels so good to be back on business!!

Say NO to IBM.
Say NO to Schwartz.

We Don't Comment On Rumors

It seems that tomorrow was going to be the big day, or the last day, as you wanted to see it. Even the scientology emperor of our dear MLP approved the deal (I have to talk seriously to Tom Cruise after this is over). Now, there is another rumor saying that we broke conversations with IBM, and that they are leaving the negotiations because we invited other partners to make offers for Sun. Well, maybe it is not true completely: it was me who broke some vases, but it was because I was wearing my hockey suit, and the IBM guys run away as if I was trying to hit them in the head. I won't say if MLP was fast enough. It's only a rumor.Oh, this is the 'board meeting' suit I'm going to wear from now on... It seems effective to explain my ideas...
Well, maybe tomorrow we'll know the truth. I tried to talk to that guy, Source, as he seems to know everything, but is a hard to find person.

Say NO to IBM.

Resting before the fight.

Well, I must recognize that this matter about IBM is making my blood run wild again, like the old times.
But I've decided to spend the weekend at home, watching some movies and not thinking about rumors (you know, we don't comment on rumors). For instance, the movie today is "The Secret of My Succes$", about a boy that begins working in a firm and makes a plot to avoid a merger from a rival company and buys the company himself with the aid of some investment bankers and part of the board against the CEO of the company.
Does this plot sound familiar to anyone?

The Fight Has Begun!!! Answer My Poll, Sun Shareholders!!

I'm weighting the support I'd have if I decide to fight against the IBM merger, so I just added a poll in this page.
It is intended for Sun shareholders, so if you have some shares, let me know if you'd support me with yours to avoid this Devil's son, I mean, this mistake of a merger. And do it soon, rumor has it that next week could everything be over. And they are offering halve what they spend on peanuts...

Of course, once I take the control of the company back I'd fire My Little Pony first thing in the morning. No hard feelings. I chose you, I fire you.

If you feel like, you can add comments saying how many shares you'd retain with you or would be willing to sell me (in that case say your price). It would be better to send me and e-mail, but we don't want to fill (real) Scott's account with spam, so I'm sure he'll read this blog and make the calculations.
Again: I'm not Scott McNealy pretending not to be me. Namaste...


On an unrelated note, just wanted to add that the organization we are just deploying at Sun is quite similar to what we had in the mid 90s, yes, that very same organization where the sales people preferred selling Bea Weblogic rather than iPlanet products because they were rewarded the same way, but had no headaches with unsatisfied customers. Live to tell...
Say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO to IBM.

Stepping out as Chairman

Our dear friend (fake) Jonathan says in his Twitter that I'm stepping out as chairman of Sun to fight the IBM acquisition.

My comment to this kind of rumor is: At Sun, we do not comment on market rumors. And much less in (fake) Jonathan's rumors.
I know you didn't expect such an original comment, it was suggested by my friend (fake) Ballmer, in line with his own "I'm not Steve Ballmer pretending not to be Steve Ballmer, pretending not to..."

So, as I'm not Scott McNealy pretending not to be Scott McNealy, I will not comment on rumors (at least until it is official, of course).

Jonathan, in any case you won't get rid of me so easily. I have a new hockey sticks set... and I will use them...

Dear One Angry Partner

I do not use to comment on user's comments in the blog page, just inside the comments zone, but I'll do an exception with you.
You asked for some action, for promoting software sales and I guess that taking care of partners more often, so we could detect when you are angry and find a remedy to this.
Well dear partners, your wishes are our commands, so, showing that I still have some power in the company (or had, who knows...), I ordered to restructure the company in three great areas or line of business: Software, Services and Hardware, and have ordered the different managers to increase partner cooperation in the business.

Of course, this is a perfect scenario to chop some more heads (figuratively, headcounts, I meant).

Or maybe Jonathan fooled me and this is the first step to sell the company by pieces...