Michael Dell said the rumour creates uncertainty over the future of Sun's Solaris-based servers and accelerates a customer migration to the X86-based Linux server, which is Dell's mainstay product.

"Just the rumour of IBM potentially purchasing Sun creates an enormous opportunity because all of the Sun accounts are very concerned what will happen to the Solaris platform and Sparc microprocessor," he told a briefing in Tokyo.

"I think this accelerates the migration (to X86-based servers) and sends a lot of those accounts into an opportunity," he said.

Sources with knowledge of the matter have said International Business Machines Corp is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems. The Wall Street Journal reported IBM is offering to pay at least $6.5 billion in cash, with the total deal value at about $8 billion, including $1.4 billion of cash on Sun's balance sheet.