SANTA CLARA, CALIF. - April 15, 2004 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Kealia, Inc., a privately-held company based in Palo Alto, Calif., co-founded and led by Andy Bechtolsheim, 48. Kealia was established to develop advanced computer system design. By acquiring Kealia, Sun gains both leading computing technology and a technology leader, who is an industry visionary and one of the best computer architects in the world.

Bechtolsheim was a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and vice president of technology from 1982 to 1995, where he held a range of roles including chief architect of Sun's workstation product line. He invented the "Stanford University Network workstation" that eventually became the Sun-1 Workstation and was instrumental in launching other successful Sun products, including the SparcStation�� 1. Bechtolsheim returns to Sun as senior vice president and chief architect in Sun's Network Systems organization, and is also a member of Sun's executive management team. He has been reassigned his "number one" employee badge.

"In many senses, Andy Bechtolsheim represents Sun's first disruptive innovator, who led the design and development of the original systems upon which Sun Microsystems was founded," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "His return to Sun amplifies our fundamental belief in the value of innovation, the value of true systems design, and the opportunity our Solaris OS and Sun Java Enterprise System technologies offer for customers frustrated by the expense and uncertainty of legacy operating environments. The acquisition of Kealia is a return to our roots, to engineering leadership, and to the invention of products, and business models, our competitors just can't match."

"I look very much forward to bringing the next generation of network computing systems to market," said Bechtolsheim. "I feel this is a very significant opportunity and I am excited to be working with Sun to deliver this vision.

As part of the acquisition, Sun plans to formally drop the "Kealia" name. No one could pronounce it anyway.

Sun issued an aggregate of approximately 20,000,000 shares of common stock (including assumed options) in exchange for all outstanding stock and options of Kealia.

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

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the US and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future results or financial performance of Sun Microsystems Inc., including statements relating to the development of next generation systems leveraging industry economics, bringing the next generation of network computing systems to market and plans to formally drop the "Kealia" name. 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 Kealia and its products, services and technologies into Sun and Sun"s ability to timely develop and introduce new products and services. 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 quarters ended September 30, 2003 and December 28, 2003.