SANTA CLARA, Calif. - December 10, 2003 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW), the creator and leading advocate of Java[tm] technology, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Waveset Technologies, Inc., a privately-held company based in Austin,Texas. Waveset's products are expected to extend the Sun Java[tm] Enterprise System capabilities by centralizing and automating the management of entities ranging from employee, customer and partner identities to devices and RFID tags, across and between enterprises, as well as on multiple platforms, including those from HP, IBM, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Identity management is the foundation for Network Computing and how secure services are enabled, provisioned, managed and delivered.

"Provisioning is an important piece of the identity management puzzle," said Jamie Lewis, chief executive officer and research chair of Burton Group. "But as a piece of the puzzle, provisioning must work well with directory services, access management, federation, and other identity management infrastructure technologies. Customers want an integrated solution, and with its acquisition of Waveset, Sun is working to address that need."

Waveset is poised to become an integral part of Sun's Software organization under the leadership of Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president, software. To further accelerate Sun's success in identity management effort, Mike Turner, formerly chief executive officer and founder at Waveset, will be leading product efforts under Stephen Pelletier, vice president of Network Identity, Communications and Portal, who reports into Schwartz. Mark McClain, formerly president and founder at Waveset, will be vice president of identity management marketing.

Waveset's software is designed to automate the processes that govern access to enterprise systems and data while greatly reducing the cost and complexity of identity management. Sun plans to integrate Waveset's products with its current Identity Management offering, Java[tm] System Network Identity Services, which provides customers with end-to-end life-cycle management capabilities by harnessing the power of key components such as the Java System Directory Server, Java System Meta Directory Server and Java System Identity Server, as well as the Java Desktop System and Java Card technology.

Waveset's secure identity management offering includes Waveset Lighthouse Provisioning Manager, an automated provisioning solution; Waveset Lighthouse Password Manager, a self-service password management solution; Waveset Lighthouse Identity Broker; an identity profile management solution; and Waveset Directory Master, a directory management solution.

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future results or financial performance of Sun Microsystems Inc., including statements relating to the acquisition of Waveset expanding Sun Java Enterprise System capabilities by centralizing and automating the management of entities, Waveset becoming an integral part of Sun's Software organization under the leadership of Jonathan Schwartz and integration of Waveset's products with Sun's current Identity Management offering, Java[tm] System Network Identity Services. Such statements are just predictions and involve risks and uncertainties such that actual results and performance may differ materially. Factors that might cause such a difference include Sun's ability to successfully integrate Waveset and its products, services and technologies into Sun. These and other risks are detailed from time to time in Sun's periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Sun's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003 and Sun's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 28, 2003.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com

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