Agreed. Remember, IBM already has quite a few different hardware platforms: x86 based servers (running Linux or Windows), System p (formerly RS/6000) servers running AIX, System i (formerly AS/400) servers, System x (formerly system/390) mainframes. Adding Solaris Sparc to that would be just be adding one more to a long list. I don't think IBM would have trouble supporting Solaris for a very long time so long as customers still want it.

For me, IBM has looked likely to buy Sun for many years, because doing so would give IBM two things that would be very valuable to it

1) Java 2) Sun's Solaris customers.