And you thought antitrust had no surprises left in it. Far from it. Even the threat of extended reviews (six to nine months in this case) is still enough to blow a chilly breeze over the swollen nether regions of about-to-merge firms. In fact, Mom’s sudden appearance at the door (“I thought you were going to the mall!”) can drain the blood from the hottest deals- leaving one party or another pleading for another shot (“I’ll even cuddle after this time. For ten minutes! I promise!”) but often to no avail.

IBM is no longer interested in buying smaller rival Sun Microsystems Inc at any price, due to concerns that such a deal would draw intense regulatory scrutiny, CNBC reported on Thursday.
Citing sources close to Sun, CNBC said the high-end computer maker had approached International Business Machines Corp earlier this week to ask it to return to the negotiating table, indicating that Sun would be flexible about price.

Sorry Sun. We understand cold showers help.
IBM not interested in Sun at any price: report [Reuters]

Comments (4)

  1. Posted by guest | April 16, 2009 at 3:09 PM

    Well at least they are preventing firms in industries other than banking from being “too big to fail”

  2. Posted by guest | April 16, 2009 at 3:12 PM

    Sun even offered “to be flexible”…what brazen strumpets. Kudos to IBM for rejecting their whorish advances.

  3. Posted by guest | April 16, 2009 at 3:14 PM

    Boies Schiller’s Richard Feinstein was just appointed 4/14 the new head of FTC’s bureau of competition, and Boies Schiller represents SCO Group in its Unix IP litigation v. IBM. Might be somewhat related…

  4. Posted by guest | April 16, 2009 at 3:17 PM

    Darn EP, between this post and the graphic LB/JD thang, I’m worried you’re spending too much time alone in front of your computer. Its a nice day out.

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