Oracle's purchase of Sun to re-shape industry

* Oracle purchase of Sun seen reshaping tech sector

* Poses challenges to IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft

* Gives Oracle No. 2 high-end server maker, Java software

By Jim Finkle

BOSTON, April 21 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp's (ORCL.O) purchase of Sun Microsystems Inc (JAVA.O) is expected to shake up the tech sector as it turns the software giant into a player in the hardware market and gives it new clout in software.

The $7.1 billion deal, which Oracle reached after the collapse of Sun's talks with International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), will make it the No. 2 player in the $17 billion market for high-end Unix computers used in corporate data centers. That puts Oracle behind IBM and ahead of Hewlett Packard Co (HPQ.N).

The acquisition also gives Oracle control of Sun's Java software, one of the world's most widely used computer languages, and the Solaris operating system for Unix servers.

"This is a competitor that is much more formidable than Sun standing alone," said Howard Anderson, a lecturer at the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and former CEO of the Yankee Group.