IT jobs potentially secured by merger

15:10 30th April 2009

IT jobs at beleaguered technology company Sun Microsystems could be saved thanks to a buyout by rival firm Oracle.

In a move that could help safeguard thousands of IT jobs around the world, including in the UK, Oracle is on the verge of securing a multi-billion dollar deal to buy Sun, after an attempted deal between Sun and IBM collapsed recently.

IT jobs in the UK and across the world have been hit by the current recession, but experts believe the industry could be set to flourish as more businesses look to technology to help improve their operations and cut costs.

The UK government has already announced that the technology industry will be crucial to the development of the British economy and ministers are pinning their hopes on the sector to help lead the country out of recession.

A recent survey from the London School of Economics has suggested as many as 700,000 new jobs, many of them in IT, could be created by a £15 billion investment in improving the UK's digital infrastructure.