Which company created the Java programming language before Oracle acquired its creator?

Sun Microsystems created the Java programming language before Oracle acquired its creator.

Java was developed at Sun Microsystems by a team led by James Gosling and was released in 1995. Its “write once, run anywhere” approach used the Java Virtual Machine to let compiled programs run on different operating systems. Java became important in enterprise software, web applications and Android development.

Sun Microsystems was founded in 1982 by Vinod Khosla, Andy Bechtolsheim and Scott McNealy, with Bill Joy joining soon afterward. The company also developed influential workstation hardware, the Solaris operating system and the SPARC processor architecture.

Oracle announced an agreement to acquire Sun in 2009 and completed the transaction in 2010. Oracle thereby obtained Java and other major technologies. The question concerns Java's creator, not Oracle's later ownership; Oracle did not invent the language.