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Sun to go private?

April 29, 2005 10:24:12.343

CNet reports that Sun may use a bunch of it's extra cash ($7.5 B) to buy itself out and go private. The supposed plan would be to sell off assets and then go public again with a leaner, meaner profile. It's unclear to me why they don't just sell off the assets now, but maybe there's a bunch of legal stuff that makes it all easier as a privately held firm - I'm not a lawyer :) Anyway, here's the salient bits:

CEO Scott McNealy has explored a plan to take Sun private with private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, a report in Business Week published on Friday said. One of the magazine's stock columnist cited a hedge manager close to McNealy as the source.
The rationale behind the leverage buy-out would be to shrink the size of Sun by selling assets, invest in its stronger product areas, and then go public again, according to the report. The company's substantial cash holding of $7.5 billion makes such a plan feasible.

It'll be fun to watch how this plays out, if the report is accurate

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