Oh noes! IBM withdrew its $7 billion bid to buy Sun Microsystems. The company has no other offers outstanding, which may mean that the well-known and well-loved Unix server supplier will have to go it alone in an uncertain economy. One interesting point, from NYT:

The Sun board did not reject the offer outright, but wanted certain guarantees that the I.B.M. side considered “onerous,” according to that person.

IBM dropped its price to $9.40 and the requirements included changing the management team and the movement/removal of some senior employees. Sun’s stock dropped to $8.49 last Friday.