Sun has been in a holding pattern since the dot com implosion. And, while Sun positioned themselves as "the dot in the dot com", that was the last innovation we have seen come from Sun.
 
Sun, while it once had very competitive hardware, had no idea how to productize and implement effective software products.  Sun works on the assumption that all software must lead to Sun server sales - definitely a flawed idea that was proven wrong numerous times.  Sun also was never able to quite grasp the idea of high volume and low margin sales.  Sun continued on in its technology efforts like it was 1988.

 
IBM has clearly demonstrated that it is more than capable of:

• Being a hardware company
• Running an effective and profitable professional services business
• Managing a growing and diverse software portfolio
• Delighting and maintaining its customer base

IBM has also managed many acquisitions and always seems to find something in an acquisition worthy of continuing on with the IBM brand.
 
The potential of a Sun acquisition by IBM makes sense.  IBM is a world class business organization and will be able to make business sense out of Sun's academic assets.