© tehduh

The talks between IBM and Sun Microsystems have broken down, and it's unclear what will come next for Sun.

"Sun and IBM failed to agree on terms and a price, which IBM reportedly had dropped from $10 to $11 per share three weeks ago to as little as $9.40 in the past few days, paving the way for an estimated $7 billion deal," writes SFGate's Deborah Gage.

"The deal's collapse after weeks of negotiations raises questions about Sun's next step, since the IBM offer was far above the value of the Silicon Valley company's shares when news of the IBM offer first surfaced last month," write the New York Times' Steve Lohr and Ashlee Vance. "Sun, an innovative pioneer in computer workstations, servers and Internet-era software, has struggled in recent years and spent months trying to secure a suitor."

"If no single vendor steps forward to purchase Sun, the possibility of a carve-out plan in which each business unit is sold to a different company remains," writes Network World's Jon Brodkin.

More here from JavaWorld ... more here from the FT ... more here from the WSJ ... and more here from Computerworld.