According to sources cited by Reuters, following weeks of rumors that IBM and various other major IT companies would buy the troubled maker of high-end hardware and the ubiquitous Java, Oracle Corp. has announced that it will buy Sun Microsystems. Oracle Corp. recently announced that it will buy Sun Microsystems Inc. for $9.50 a share, valuing the high-end computer server maker at more than $7 billion.

The surprise announcement from the two companies comes after deal talks between IBM and Sun fell apart earlier this month, and sources with knowledge of the matter had verified that Sun had turned down IBM’s offer to pay up to $9.40 a share. The price of $9.50 a share values Sun at about $7.1 billion based on about 745 million shares outstanding, according to Sun’s latest regulatory filings. The companies said in a statement the transaction is valued at about $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of cash and debt.