Business Mergers and Acquisitions Planning: Sun Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Alliances Brian Sutphin shares his views on inorganic growth strategies, including mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships. With the one-year anniversary of two of Sun's biggest acquisitions just passed, Sutphin offers his view from the trenches.

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Sun Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Alliances Brian Sutphin shares his views on inorganic growth strategies, including mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships. With the one-year anniversary of two of Sun's biggest acquisitions just passed, Sutphin offers his view from the trenches.

Q: Why do companies pursue mergers and acquisitions?

Sutphin: Primarily for growth. Some companies rely almost exclusively on acquisitions for growth and others not at all. Sun is somewhere in between. For decades, Sun has invested heavily in R&D and technology innovation — creating a broad and deep product portfolio that includes technologies such as Java, Solaris, and SPARC. Internal development is important, but it's not enough.

Acquisitions are one means of bringing to a company the innovation that, in the words of a Sun co-founder, "happens elsewhere." But it's important to emphasize that acquisitions complement Sun's organic efforts, they are not a substitute for them. They are also a great way of adding new talent to the company.

Q: How do you determine if a merger or acquisition is in line with your company strategy?

Sutphin: At Sun we follow a corporate operating system - an ongoing, regular, planning cycle that produces the strategic plan by which we run the company. For the most part, our inorganic growth activities, including acquisitions, are directed by the output of that planning process.