Oracle and Sun announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun in an all-cash transaction valued at about $7.4 billion.

Sun made its name as a supplier of server hardware during the dot-com heyday, but its best-known technology is software: the Java programming language. The two companies said Java is the “most important software Oracle has ever acquired.”

Ellison didn’t always see Sun as a desirable takeover target. In 2003, when Oracle was in the throes of trying to acquire PeopleSoft, Ellison said that buying Sun would be a “bad idea.” At Oracle’s annual shareholder meeting that October, Ellison said: “I don’t think Oracle should be in the hardware business, so I don’t think you’ll see us buying any hardware companies.”