DealZone

On Wednesday, Oracle closed its multi-billion dollar takeover of Sun. A few bullet points from the Thomson Reuters data team:

· Following approval from European anti-trust officials, Oracle’s $5.8 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems was completed today. The transaction is 3rd largest software deal globally since the Tech Boom and the 10th largest on record.

· Since 2004, Oracle has been the most active acquirer in the software sector based on advisory fees. Oracle was the acquirer on 5 of the largest 10 software deals since the Tech Boom.

· In 2009 Software transactions accounted for 11% of the global M&A fee pool, the highest portion since 2000 when the sector accounted for just over 21% of the fee pool.

· Fees generated globally by the software industry in 2009 were up 36% versus 2008 despite the fact the number of deals was down 19% from the previous year.

Oracle Corp’s (ORCL.O) acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA.O) could be delayed by up to four months if the European Commission’s antitrust authority decide to launch an investigation into the $7.4bn deal. US authorities cleared the sale last week, but the EC is concerned over Oracle gaining ownership of the MySQL database product, sources familiar with the situation tell Reuters.

For this and the rest of the latest deals news from Reuters, click here.

And here’s a round-up of other deals news reported in the press on Wednesday:

* The Cosmen-CVC Capital Partners consortium bidding for bus and train operator National Express (NEX.L) is looking for ways to make its offer more attractive, the Financial Times said.

The Wall Street Journal’s Deal Journal blog wrote a post yesterday about how Sun Microsystems, which has agreed to be acquired by Oracle, now looks “less dumb” than before. In the days after IBM walked away from the negotiating table about two weeks ago, the media was rife with comparisons between Sun and Yahoo, which bungled up a $47.5 billion buyout offer from Microsoft last year.

But now we all know why Sun was driving such a hard bargain with IBM, as Deal Journal says. It actually had some negotiating leverage because Oracle was already waiting in the wings.

Sources told me yesterday that Oracle began courting Sun way back in end-February/beginning-March. Initially, the business enterprise software maker sent feelers to Sun about buying just its software business. After all, Sun’s Java programming language and Solaris operating system work very closely with Oracle products.

If the Sun-IBM deal is truly dead, and Sun’s reported abandonment of talks is not brinkmanship, then the maker of Java multimedia software could end up with all the kick and excitement of yesterday’s decaf. Among the reasons cited by Sun for walking away, according to The Wall Street Journal, was IBM’s failure to guarantee it would go through with a deal in the face of regulatory challenges. With the mauling courtroom battles that have bloodied the M&A landscape of the last couple of years, it’s not hard to see why Sun would push for such protection.

But if it turns out Sun also played hard to get over price, which seems more likely, Sun may find itself in Yahooland before too long, with a share price in the tank and alternative deals drawing the kind of regulatory scrutiny that Sun says it is trying to guard against.

Sun was said to be unhappy with IBM’s offer of $9.40 per share, which was a premium of up to 89 percent on Sun’s shares before deal talks were first reported last month. Deals getting done these days are far less juicy, and as Peter Falvey, technology banker at Revolution Partners, tells us, Sun is coming out of this looking a lot less sexy than it might have. “Sun is now sort of damaged goods,” he said. “If IBM got under the covers and didn’t like what they saw, then what does that mean for other potential buyers?”

What do you do if your company is reported to be involved in an $8 billion acquisition and you’re already scheduled to give a big speech?******If you’re Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, you honor the commitment and then make a swift exit.******The pony-tailed CEO took the lectern on Wednesday at the Open Source Business Conference at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel, his first public appearance since reports surfaced last week that IBM and Sun were in acquisition talks (reports that neither company has so far commented on).******While the putative deal has produced endless column inches of analysis and speculation in the business media, it had no place in Schwartz’s remarks. Instead, Schwartz spoke about Sun’s recently-released cloud computing service, largely rehashing talking points he made in an earlier series of blog posts.******The most intriguing nugget, for those running Schwartz’s comments through the filter of an IBM deal, was his characterization of Sun’s open source operating system as the “single most valuable” part of the company, as it represents the key building block for Sun to play in high-margin, adjacent markets like networking.******When his 30 minutes were up, Schwartz slipped behind a curtain and retreated backstage, conveniently avoiding any reporters in the audience eager for ask him about the IBM deal.******And when a couple of reporters greeted him at the hotel’s exit, Schwartz proved equally aloof - the surprised CEO was good-mannered enough to shake hands, but didn’t break his stride, or his silence, to answer a question about the progress of the IBM deal. Maybe next time...

Caught between the credit crisis of 2008 and never having fully recovered from the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000, Sun Microsystems‘ prospects are being eclipsed by a sunken share price and grumpy investors. Anupreeta Das and Jim Finkle report that Sun could be forced to sell itself or some of its assets.

Sun shares are down 77 percent this year, more than double the decline in the Nasdaq, and 98 percent below levels seen at the peak of the dot-com bubble. Top Sun shareholder Southeastern Asset Management has said it might talk directly to third parties about alternatives. Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, another shareholder, may also support a sale after having written down the value of its $700 million debt investment in the company, bankers and analysts say.

“We are in a complex industry and our growth plan and progress can’t be easily measured by our stock price,” Sun spokesman Shawn Dainas said in an e-mailed statement. He said in an email that technology bets in areas such as multi-threading systems that handle more than one set of software instructions at once and open storage systems, which combine open-source software with standard hardware, are paying off.

Pity the guys who dreamt up two of Wall Street’s coolest tickers — DNA and BUD — both of which look set to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Genentech grabbed the three letters synonymous with biotechnology by being in on the ground floor of the gene revolution. Anheuser-Busch was lucky enough to have a beer brand known everywhere by one syllable. Now both look doomed.

Genentech faces a $43.7 billion bid from Roche for the 44 percent of the Californian biotech group that it doesn’t already own. Genentech is expected to succomb, albeit after a possibly sweetened offer. Anheuser has already agreed to a $52 billion takeover by InBev.