Apr. 25--Oracle's decision to buy Sun Microsystems was a surprise for many in Silicon Valley, but analysts say the deal is a logical outgrowth of two related trends that are reshaping the tech industry as it wrestles with a bruising global recession.

With stock prices in the cellar, bigger and stronger companies are seeing opportunities to buy small or struggling ones at bargain rates. And tech giants such as Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard are expanding their businesses now, with an eye toward a future when the economy comes roaring back, by moving to become full-service suppliers of hardware and software for the big data centers that increasingly support commerce around the world.

"There's going to be that next wave, and the big vendors are positioning themselves to be ready to capture that opportunity," said Jean Bozman, who follows the tech industry for research firm IDC.

The business of building and supplying data centers -- air-conditioned rooms packed with computers and related gear, which do everything from processing online purchases to tracking inventory, customer accounts and payroll information -- is already worth hundreds of billions of dollars. It's expected to grow with the spread of "cloud computing," in which companies and consumers increasingly use PCs and mobile devices to access information and software that's stored in those centers instead of on their own hard drives.

In that light, analysts say it's not

so surprising that Oracle, a company that has thrived by concentrating on business software, would buy Sun, whose stock has plummeted as it struggled to make money from an array of innovative software, high-end server computers and data-storage systems.

"Our customers have been asking us to step up to a broader role, to reduce complexity, risk and cost," Oracle President Charles Phillips wrote in a letter to the two companies' clients and partners. He said Oracle plans to respond by offering "a broad range of products," including hardware and software, and "an integrated system" in which "all the pieces fit and work together, so customers do not have to do it themselves."

More deals likely

The fact that archrival IBM also tried to buy Sun may have spurred Oracle into action. And in the wake of other, smaller deals -- including computer maker Rackable Systems' recent move to snap up bankrupt competitor Silicon Graphics -- experts say more acquisitions are likely.