IBM, Sun Ditch Joint Effort

IBM and Sun Microsystems have pulled the plug on their year-old joint effort to broaden a simple operating system written in the Java programming language for use in very simple business computers. The joint effort involved as many as 150 workers at the two companies and was announced in April 1998. The idea was to come up with an alternative to Microsoft’s Windows systems that would run Java programming more effectively. Although IBM has done more programming in Java than any other company, including Sun, Java’s inventor, the alliance was notable because the companies compete in server computers and other areas. Sun product line manager Lisa Carnochan said IBM and Sun decided to reassign their engineers on the project because Java virtual machines, which are software that emulate operating systems, have gotten so good there was need for another one. “When the industry takes over and starts competing to make it better, it’s like, ‘Yahoo, that’s something we don’t have to spend money on.’ It’s an opportunity to go specialize on something else.” Meanwhile, Sun agreed to buy Oakland-based Forte Software Inc. for about $540 million in stock to acquire technology for doing business on the Internet. In Nasdaq trading, Forte shares jumped $4.13 to close at $21.13, and Sun rose 56 cents to close at $74.81.