[thinnews] Sun Acquires Tarantella!
- From: "Jim Kenzig http://thethin.net" <jimkenz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Thinnews <thinnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 06:53:23 -0700 (PDT)
Huge news!
JK
Sun Snatches Thin-Client Software Maker Tarantella
Tarantella software is designed to provide access to server-based applications
and could help Sun's utility-computing strategy.
By Larry Greenemeier, InformationWeek
-->May 10, 2005
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163100755
Sun Microsystems is looking to advance its utility-computing strategy through
the acquisition of Tarantella Inc., a provider of software used by desktop PCs
and other client devices to access and manage data over the Web. Sun expects
the transaction, worth about $25 million, to close by September.
Tarantella's Secure Global Desktop software is designed to provide secure
access to server-based applications running on Linux, Unix, Microsoft Windows,
mainframe, and midrange operating systems. Like competitor Citrix Systems,
Tarantella's business revolves around providing thin-client devices with access
to enterprise applications and information residing on back-end servers.
Although Tarantella's market presence has been on the decline, Secure Global
Desktop is used by companies that espouse the server-based computing model that
Sun has promoted to, in part, compete with competitors Dell, Hewlett-Packard,
and IBM, all of which relied on a PC business at one time and were heavily
indebted to Microsoft for their desktop operating systems.
With Tarantella's technology, applications aren't stored or run locally on a
PC. Users access their applications through a Web browser by authenticating
themselves to a server running Tarantella's software. Once they're
authenticated, users access their applications through an HTML-based desktop
which allows them access only to the apps they have permission to use.
The acquisition of Tarantella ultimately will make it easier for Sun customers
to deploy desktops that run either open-source StarOffice applications or those
from Microsoft, says David Friedlander, a Forrester Research senior analyst. In
the short term, Tarantella's Global Secure Desktop won't deliver much
incremental revenue to Sun, but longer term, it could help Sun's overall
desktop strategy.
The move also puts Sun's R&D and marketing engines behind technology developed
by Tarantella, which had unsuccessfully tried to compete with Citrix in the $2
billion annual software market for server-based computing, Friedlander says.
Tarantella began its life as Santa Cruz Operation Inc., which in August 2000
sold its Unix server software and services divisions, as well as UnixWare and
OpenServer operating systems, to Caldera Systems Inc. Santa Cruz Operations
renamed itself Tarantella and focused on producing Web-enabled
terminal-services applications. Caldera, meanwhile, renamed itself The SCO
Group, developed technology for running Unix on x86-based servers, and has
become infamous for a multibillion-dollar Linux-related lawsuit against IBM.
It's been an active week on the acquisition front for Sun. The company earlier
this week said it's buying intellectual-property rights to network-attached
storage technology from Procom Technology for about $50 million.
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