Sun Microsystems Inc is now expected to announce an agreement to acquire Germany’s Star Division by the end of the month, just a week before its second generation JavaStation thin client comes on to the market. As reported here last month (CI No 3,711) Sun has been talking to Star for some time, It is now thought to have finalized the deal earlier this month. Star’s thin-client office software is seen by some as a competitor to Microsoft Corp’s Office, though specifically architected to run in low-memory footprints on multiple devices. In 1992 the firm hired Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim to sort out its future strategy.
The addition of Star’s software to Sun’s portfolio could help to make the launch of the new Javastation, codenamed Corona (CI No 3,719) more compelling. After some delays, the new machines is now expected to appear on September 8 at Sun’s Enterprise Computing Forum in New York. Sun’s first attempt at providing a thin client device was a failure. Interestingly, Sun and IBM announced the cancellation of JavaOS for Business yesterday (see separate story), originally the operating system that ran on the first generation thin clients.
As well as its thin client software, Star also has Windows and Linux ports of its software, the future of which, under Sun ownership, must be less certain.
