"Discussions with Sun Microsystems on ARM Holdings"
It gives the impression that Sun were at least entertaining the idea of acquiring Acorn or ARM, with the former holding a sizeable chunk of the latter as we all know. The first draft of the letter includes this:
It sounds like Sun may have passed up on any such acquisition, and the final draft of the letter focuses on a more general strategy. At first, I thought it might just be about licensing Java technologies to Acorn (mundane, and in line with the network computing bandwagon) and ARM (more exotic, but in keeping with the "Java chip" fad), but the language is quite clear about acquisition of companies, not just products.In this industry, time-to-market is increasingly significant and has caused an acceleration of traditional product cycles. As such, many companies have decided that there is neither the time nor the expertise to build groups internally, and as a result, many have chosen to acquire companies that provide immediate expertise and focus. In this respect, Acom/ARM would have provided a solid chip design for the targeted telephony and networking markets. Of course, Sun may have needed to re-engineer the chips specifically to execute Java byte code, but the team has already proven itself in the targeted markets and has been successful in generating ISV support for its designs.
The same person also uploaded advice that was to be given to Apple about offloading various divisions and products in 1997 when the company needed the cash:
"Apple Computer"
In that, the sale of Apple's shareholding in ARM to Intel is proposed.
