SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)— Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. said on Thursday it agreed to buy Storage Technology Corp. for $4.1 billion in cash, bolstering its presence in the fast-growing market for data storage.

Santa Clara, California-based Sun will pay $37 per share for Louisville, Colorado-based Storage Technology, also known as StorageTek, and the price includes the assumption of StorageTek employee stock options. The $37 price is an 18.5 percent premium to StorageTek's closing price on Wednesday.

The move by Sun is the company's largest acquisition in recent memory as the one-time Wall Street darling seeks to reinvent itself after falling on hard times since the implosion of the dot-com boom in 2000. The deal could also help shore up Sun's computer server business, where it has lost market share to rivals such as International Business Machines Corp. on the high end and Dell Inc. on the low end.

Sun Acquires StorageTek

02 June 2005 | 5:00am PT
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