Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010 for about $7.4 billion.
Oracle announced the agreement in April 2009, and the acquisition was completed in January 2010 after regulatory review. Sun was a major technology company known for servers, the Solaris operating system, the SPARC processor architecture, and its role in developing Java.
The purchase gave Oracle control of both hardware and important software technologies. Oracle promoted the combination as a way to offer integrated systems, while critics questioned whether the deal would preserve Sun’s open-source projects and community-driven development.
Sun had acquired the rights to Java’s commercial development before Oracle bought Sun. Java remained widely used in enterprise software, Android-related development, and programming education. Oracle’s market value comes mainly from its large database, cloud, and enterprise-software businesses, while the Sun acquisition broadened its technology portfolio.