Comment by leoc
15 hours ago
IBM did bid, but Oracle jumped in with a higher offer. Supposedly (IIRC) the Sun leadership had wanted and expected IBM to buy Sun but didn't feel it could refuse the higher bid. Aside from Java Google would surely have been a very awkward fit with Sun, as Google was basically the poster child for never buying anything from Sun.
Yes, and they decided to widthraw almost as quick as they did the offer.
And no one else did, I also bet HNers would appreciate IBM being the new owner just as they appreciate Oracle.
Regardless of the tiny detail that when Java came to be, the two companies that joined Sun's efforts right away, with Java support on their OSes, databases and thin client efforts, were exactly Oracle and IBM.