Sun Microsystems and Google
Team Up on Software Offerings

With an Eye on Microsoft,
Companies Agree to Work
On a Range of Products

By DON CLARK and KEVIN J. DELANEY
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 5, 2005; Page B3

Sun Microsystems Inc. and Google Inc. announced a software alliance that could effectively open a new front in Google's increasingly heated competition with Microsoft Corp.

The agreement also could help Sun improve distribution for its own software as well as provide a high-profile endorsement of its slow-growing computer business.

Though they revealed few details of their plans, the companies disclosed that Sun will begin distributing Google's toolbar software for Web browsers along with a version of Sun's Java software for desktop computers. Google will pay Sun an undisclosed amount each time a user downloads the Google toolbar software from a Sun Web site.

The companies also said they will work together to popularize productivity software, called OpenOffice.org, that Sun helped create. OpenOffice includes a word processor and other programs, and competes with Microsoft's dominant Office franchise. The suite of programs is distributed free and is refined by an informal network of programmers under a development model known as open-source software.