Sun Acquires Virtualbox Vendor Innotek
Sun Microsystems has been on another spending spree: Sun’s latest acquisition is said to be Innotek, the manufacturer of the Virtualbox Open Source virtualization solution.
According to a recent press announcement, Sun Microsystems has submitted a takeover bid to Innotek shareholders; the price was not disclosed. The young, German enterprise impressed its purchaser with figures of more than four million downloads since it released its code in January 2007. Virtualbox is to become part of Sun’s virtualization strategy, which the enterprise announced in November 2007 under the Sun xVM caption. "VirtualBox provides Sun with the perfect complement to our recently announced Sun xVM Server product" said Rich Green, Vice President Sun Software, and added: "and will align perfectly with Sun's other developer focused assets such as GlassFish, OpenSolaris, OpenJDK and soon MySQL." He sees Sun’s xVM server at the core of the data center and Virtualbox as the perfect match for any laptop or desktop. Sun xVM is based on the free Xen virtualization technology which Sun customizes and optimizes for its own applications.
Details of the acquisition and the price have not been disclosed, however, the press release does reveal that the transaction will not impact Sun’s profit per share. The deal is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of the 2008 fiscal year, which would be late March.
After MySQL, Innotek is the second Open Source company on Sun’s shopping list in recent weeks. January 16 Sun announced the acquisition of the company behind the MySQL Open Source database at a price of one billion dollars.
Virtualbox weighs in at less than 20MB and can be downloaded from the project website. The guest operating system supported by Virtualbox include Windows 3.1 through Vista, Linux Kernel 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6, Solaris x86, OS/2, Netware and DOS.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Framework Laptop 13 Pro Competes with the Best
Framework has released what might be considered the MacBook of Linux devices.
-
The Latest CachyOS Features Supercharged Kernel
The latest release of CachyOS brings with it an enhanced version of the latest Linux kernel.
-
Kernel 7.0 Is a Bit More Rusty
Linux kernel 7.0 has been released for general availability, with Rust finally getting its due.
-
France Says "Au Revoir" to Microsoft
In a move that should surprise no one, France announced plans to reduce its reliance on US technology, and Microsoft Windows is the first to get the boot.
-
CIQ Releases Compatibility Catalog for Rocky Linux
The company behind Rocky Linux is making an open catalog available to developers, hobbyists, and other contributors, so they can verify and publish compatibility with the CIQ lineup.
-
KDE Gets Some Resuscitation
KDE is bringing back two themes that vanished a few years ago, putting a bit more air under its wings.
-
Ubuntu 26.04 Beta Arrives with Some Surprises
Ubuntu 26.04 is almost here, but the beta version has been released, and it might surprise some people.
-
Ubuntu MATE Dev Leaving After 12 years
Martin Wimpress, the maintainer of Ubuntu MATE, is now searching for his successor. Are you the next in line?
-
Kali Linux Waxes Nostalgic with BackTrack Mode
For those who've used Kali Linux since its inception, the changes with the new release are sure to put a smile on your face.
-
Gnome 50 Smooths Out NVIDIA GPU Issues
Gamers rejoice, your favorite pastime just got better with Gnome 50 and NVIDIA GPUs.