Not according to Bernstein Research's senior analyst Toni Sacconaghi, who says there are no other likely suitors to step in if IBM completely walks away from the deal.
"[Sun] approached most logical buyers several months ago, with IBM being the most interested," says Sacconaghi, in a brief report issued following the news that talks between Sun and IBM had broken down.
"While we believe that HP makes the most sense given its cost focus, physical proximity to [Sun] (leading to more facile facilities consolidation), and more complementary product lines (HP is not as strong as IBM in Unix), the company appears fully focused on its acquisition of EDC, and a coincident deal to acquire Sun may prove to be overly distracting.
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