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Sun, EDS ink deal, predict $3 b in five years

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CIOL Bureau
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SAN FRANCISCO: Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. and consulting

firm Electronic Data Systems Corp. said on Monday that they had struck a

non-exclusive partnership that they expect to bring them an additional combined

$3 billion in revenues over five years.

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The two firms have had a strategic alliance for a year-and-a-half and worked

together longer, and executives in a telephone interview declined to say what

sort of increase the closer relationship would bring and how the revenue would

be broken down between firms.

Palo Alto, California-based Sun and Plano, Texas-based EDS said the $3

billion over five years would be in addition to sales generated from current

cooperation. They aim to build and even operate technology systems for mid-sized

and major customers. As part of the cooperative deal, Sun will provide hardware

and software and EDS consulting and outsourcing.

The specialist companies are competing against firms like International

Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. that offer both consulting

services and computer hardware and software. "We have common competitors in

the marketplace," John Wilkerson, EDS vice president of global alliances,

said in an interview ahead of the announcement.

Wilkerson said the firms had already proven they worked well together, and he

argued that their nonexclusive arrangement will allow them to serve customers

better than IBM or H-P, which are more bound to relying on their own wares.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.

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