In downturn, an opportunity for Silicon Valley tech giants to get stronger

Oracle's decision to buy Sun Microsystems was a surprise for many in Silicon Valley, but analysts say the deal is a logical outgrowth of two related trends that are reshaping the tech industry as it wrestles with a bruising global recession. With stock prices in the cellar, bigger and stronger companies are seeing opportunities to buy small or struggling ones at bargain rates. And tech giants such as Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard are expanding their businesses now, with an eye toward a future when the economy comes roaring back, by moving to become full-service suppliers of hardware and software for the big data centers that increasingly support commerce around the world. "There's going to be that next wave, and the big vendors are positioning themselves to be ready to capture that opportunity," said Jean Bozman, who follows the tech industry for research firm IDC.