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I thought that the Sun-IBM would've been a fair one.  IBM has gone the way of services rather than hardware and their primary customers typically are large enterprises.  Then you have Sun which is also geared towards enterprises, namely with their Java platforms and servers.  But now that the deal is dead, you have to wonder what will happen to Sun?

It's been said that Sun typically has been long known for their solid servers.  Since Linux came out though, Sun has been suffering with heavy competition from Dell, HP, etc. as PC components have been cheaper (and reportedly faster) than Sun's.  Sun attempted to adapt to this environment by having their own branded Linux versions, but I never really saw that taking off.  Matter of fact, when I first saw those servers appear, my first thought was, "Gee, this is a nicely colored PC box with a Sun logo on the front."  I really doubt that's the impression you'd want to give your customers.

Still, if we allow ourselves to speculate for a moment, who are some potential buyers?

• Apple - There were rumors back in the day that Sun at one point could've bought Apple out during Apple's death bed days.  Is it time for Apple to reverse the roles?  My answer: probably not.  Apple is more focused on the average customer (actually the artist) rather than the enterprise business man.  While it would've made sense for Sun to buy out Apple, it does not make a lot of sense for Apple to buy out Sun.  Their visions are completely different.
• HP - A good candidate.  This could be a huge blow to Dell and really expand HP's business.  Unlike Dell, HP focuses on areas other than just hardware and customer service. So the acquisition/merger could help bolster up HP's service division and their research center.
• Google - My personal preference.  I think Google would make the perfect match.  Many of Google's employees have come from Sun at one point.  Both have some sense of cloud computing and a Java strategy.  Google is a heavy contributor to the Java community, especially OpenJDK.  Google just released Google Apps Engine for Java.  Then you can throw in the Mysql RDBMS on top of BigTable just for fun.  And you bring in more server side expertise for Google's data centers.  Let's face it: running your own data center sucks these days.  Let's have some experts do it right and get all these other jabronies onto something that just works.
• Amazon.com - An interesting idea.  Like Google, Amazon has their own cloud computing (EC2) and is quite engineering focused (ever been to an Amazon interview?)  I don't really think Amazon wants to go into the business of selling servers or supporting them, but the notion of expertise in data centers, having the Java grail and mysql are pretty appealing.
• Microsoft - I know what you're thinking.  Why?  Let's just say to end a long standing feud and put Sun out of its misery.  They can conclude this episode with that song by Alanis Morrisette "Ironic."

Any ideas who might else be up?