By Ned Brainard (www.hotwired.com/flux)
It looks like Sun's Java strategy suddenly has a doughnut hole. In January, three key members of the team left just as Sun was poised to make Java a Net standard.
Kim Polese (far left) and Arthur van Hoff (second from right), who only a few weeks earlier posed for Time as two of Java's chief guardians, have formed a company to build Java programs. Joining them is Sami Shaio (far right), plus former Starwaver Jonathan Payne, who worked in the original Java team at Sun.
Without its team leaders, Sun must play Let's Make a Deal with its future. Behind Curtain A is the overthrow of the Wintel duopoly. Behind Curtain B is a future as the next Apple. Too bad for Alan Baratz, former Delphi CEO and now head of Sun's JavaSoft, that Monty Hall isn't around to help him choose.
ELECTRIC WORD
Spilled Beans
