APPLE Computer, which has a major manufacturing plant in Cork, and Sun Microsystems have resumed merger talks and a deal between the two companies is imminent, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Informed sources declined to give specific details about the structure of the deal or the value, but one source said the arrangement could be a $4 billion stock swap that values Apple at approximately $33 a share. Oracle's chief executive, Mr Lawrence Ellison, is also believed to be interested in acquiring Apple, the paper said.

Apple, a maker of personal computers and software, and workstation maker Sun Microsystems had been in merger talks since September but talks collapsed two weeks ago. Neither company had officially confirmed negotiations between the two.