Word on the street in the WSJ and other sources is that IBM is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems, in a "combination that would bolster IBM's heft on the Internet, in software and in finance and telecommunications markets."

That's a heck of a story to wake up to after having been locked up in the Austin Convention Center for the past four days, deprived of sunshine, Vitamin D, and no time to consume much news.

Of course, I know nothing about any of this, being a lowly IBM blogger, but it is an interesting proposition.

I checked Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz's blog this morning, only to find his last post was on Wednesday March 11, where he referenced Sun's three major strategic imperatives.

But nothing about any IBM/Sun merger.

I kid.

There would, of course, be no blog post until a deal was done. But I figured it was worth a look.

I also did a quick query of "IBM" on the Sun Web site search engine this morning, and the first thing that popped up was a link to "Sun Solaris Operating System."

I suppose that's one good reason to buy Sun.

The next link was "Solaris on IBM Servers."

I suppose that's another good reason.

And further on down the list was the "Sun Trade-in Program: Trade-Up from IBM or HP to Sun."

Okay, so two out of three ain't bad.

The Journal story says the asking price is $6.5B in cash, which would be a premium of more than 100% over Sun's Sunday closing price.

Keep your eye on this space.

But please, no total eclipse of the sun jokes.

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