By Don Miller Associate Editor Money Morning In a surprise move yesterday (Monday), Oracle Corp. (ORCL) pounced on the opportunity to buy Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA), for about $7.4 billion in cash, stepping in after Sun’s talks with International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) fell apart. The deal gives Oracle control of server and software maker Sun’s coveted Java programming language and brings to a close Sun’s 27-year reign as the maverick of Silicon Valley. Java is the dominant language of the Internet and runs on over 1 billion devices worldwide. The acquisition is in line with Oracle’s overall business strategy. Oracle, the world’s second-biggest software maker, has dropped $34.5 billion on buyouts since 2005, making it the most aggressive software company in the hi-tech field. "The deal would strengthen Oracle’s position against IBM. Oracle has done a good job ...