IBM Global Services is one of Sun's largest global resellers so it would be an opportunity for IBM to secure this very loyal customer base and increase its share of the UNIX market where all the margin dollars are found in the server market. Add in HP and Sun's recent partnership around Solaris and you've got another big motivator for IBM to look closely at a potential acquisition of Sun to strengthen itself against the competition. Furthermore, IBM has wanted to get its hands on Java for some time as it is a key intellectual property for WebSphere and, in terms of Identity & Access Management (IAM), IBM would also dominate the market from a revenue perspective with a Sun acquisition. Forrester believes a combined entity would compromise somewhere near 30% of a $2b+ IAM market. This isn't the first time IBM has made attempts at acquiring Sun but so far all attempts have been unsuccessful. There also should be no antitrust concerns being speculated as IBM Rational alone has yearly revenue in range with Sun.