Open Software Foundation

[Dan Ehrlich]

In article <54822 at sun.uucp> guy at gorodish.Sun.COM (Guy Harris) writes:
>Sun is not a subsidiary of AT&T.  I have no expectation that Sun will become a
>subsidiary of AT&T in the future, and I know of nobody within Sun who has such
>an expectation.
>
>Sun and AT&T are two separate companies, and will probably continue to be so
>for the forseeable future.  Please keep that in mind.
>

It is my understanding the AT&T currently owns 20% of SUN Microsystems'
stock (it may be less with options up to 20%).  Anytime a single
company or individual owns that large a block of stock they most
assuredly can influence major decisions.

The operative wording above is "for the forseeable future".  If AT&T
comes to the conclusion that SUN is doing something it does not like,
it could exert quite a bit of pressure to get things done differently.
I would be very surprised if AT&T did not use the power that comes with
owning 20% of a company to change something they percieved as bad for
AT&T's business.

Dan Ehrlich <ehrlich at blitz.cs.psu.edu> | Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed are
The Pennsylvania State University      | my own, and should not be atributed
Department of Computer Science         | to anyone else, living or dead.
334B Whitmore Laboratory               |