You can say a lot of things about Larry Ellison, but never call him a quitter.
The planned merger of his Oracle
It's not the first time Oracle has gotten hung up on the way to a multibillion-dollar deal. The $10.3 billion PeopleSoft buyout took more than a year of courting, back-and-forth, and legal disputes. The BEA Systems deal, only slightly smaller at $8.5 billion, met with fewer regulatory challenges but featured plenty of price haggling, and it took just as long to complete as the PeopleSoft buyout.
The $7.4 billion Sun agreement is a strange beast that could turn Oracle into a Mini-Me version of IBM
The Sun deal puts Oracle's finger into many new pies and places the company in direct competition with many of its biggest partners and customers. I still don't think it's a very good idea to do this, but Ellison seems determined to make it happen. And judging by his track record of making difficult buyouts a reality, I suppose this one also will come through in the end.