IBM no longer interested in Sun?

(By Richard Holway 9.00pm 16th Apr 09) CNBC has reported today that IBM is no longer interested in buying Sun "at any price, due to concerns that such a deal would draw intense regulatory scrutiny. IBM's contacts within the U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the European Union have all advised the company that such a merger could be subject to an antitrust review lasting six to nine months".

Although the deal looked good logic for Sun, it was less clear what IBM would get out of it. Why would IBM want yet another hardware technology to worry about? Who would take that off IBM's hands in a later deal if IBM tried to follow its current policy of selling off its low profit bits?Clearly a contracted anti-trust investigation was a risk too far.

But what will Sun do now? In the M&A world, the last thing you want is a sign saying "Look I'm really desperate and everyone else has turned me down".