KKR makes $700 million investment in Sun
Updated
We’re a little perplexed by this.
Sun chief executive Jonathan Schwartz (pictured left) says the cash infusion from KKR will be used to pursue growth, but then says we “certainly don’t need the money.” Was he misquoted or are we missing something?
From the WSJ:
The Santa Clara, Calif., company also announced that private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. will make a $700 million investment in the company in the form of convertible senior notes. Along with the investment, KKR will nominate a member of Sun’s board of directors.
Sun Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz said the investment would give a boost to the company’s turnaround and help it reach new financial customers. “It’s an opportunistic transaction,” with the cash to be used to pursue growth initiatives, he said. “We certainly don’t need the money.”
Sun has nearly $3.5 billion in cash and short term investments on its book, so presumably he doesn’t need it.
Here’s the company’s entire announcement about it.
This is the second confusing statement of his we’ve cited recently. The other was the non-answer about why Sun bought land in Second Life.
[Update: Paul Kedrosky says the move is also to defend Sun from hostile takeover bids at lower prices than what KKR paid]
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
