I share the article's author's sense of confusion about this deal. If Oracle were keen to buy Sun why did they let IBM almost succeed in buying Sun first?
It validates their decision. If anyone points it out as a stupid deal, they can say that IBM wanted to go through with it and IBM is never wrong.
Some people have proposed a theory that the failure of the IBM-Sun deal created the perception that Sun was desperate, and once they were desperate Sun had to accept whatever deal came along. Thus Oracle could pick them up at a discount price.