Many used to hate the Companies Office website (certainly it had few fans among the army of NBR journos and contributors beavering away on the 2010 Rich List).

Visiting it was often a super-slow torture-by-Java, and in some web browsers it refused to load at all.

But that was then (or at least last Thursday).

IBM has lowered its bid to buy Sun Microsystems as the two companies come close to finalising the takeover. The deal will still be the biggest in IBM’s history, by some margin.

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that struggling Sun has accepted IBM’s lower offer of between $US9 and $US10 a share ($US10 to $US11 was originally mooted, representing a 100% premium on Sun’s then market cap) in exchange for a series of concessions.

The world’s largest PC maker is reportedly testing a budget laptop that runs not on Windows, or Linux, but Google operating system software.

Satjiv Chahil, a vice president of HP's PC division, confirmed today that his company is trialling a new computer running on Google’s Android OS.

However, Mr Chahil told The Wall Street Journal that his company has not yet decided whether to go to market with the product.

IBM is bidding to buy Sun Microsystems for at least $US6.5 billion - a 100% premium on the market - according to a Wall Street Journal newsflash.

If it goes through, the acquisition would be the biggest in IBM’s history, beating its deal to buy business intelligence software maker Cognos for $US5 billion in November 2007 [UPDATE: Sun shares are up more than 80% today; read The Sun also rises].