Earlier this week, my colleague Douglas McIntyre observed that Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) "is one of the worst performing large-tech companies in America." It seems that ratings firm Fitch agrees with his take as last night it slashed JAVA's ratings outlook from "stable" to "negative." As a result of the move, JAVA is trading just pennies away from its annual low of $4.51 this morning.

In a release, Fitch cited a litany of challenges facing Sun Micro, including deteriorating demand outlook, recent share losses in the server market, significant decline in gross margin, and the expectation for continued pressure on information technology spending into 2009.

Even more troubling, investors learned today that Sun's co-founder, Andreas von Bechtolsheim, is stepping down from his role as chief architect to work for start-up firm Arista Networks.

However, as bleak as things may seem for Sun, another report adds an interesting angle to McIntyre's suggestion that JAVA should be sold to the highest bidder. Southeastern Asset Management, a value investment firm, said Wednesday that it's boosted its stake in Sun Microsystems to 21%. The firm said that it plans to hold discussions with Sun's management "regarding opportunities to maximize the value of the company for all shareholders." And we all know what that's code for, right? Stay tuned to see how this potential M&A deal unfolds.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Longleaf Funds, a long-term track record of excellent results, was featured in Barron's mutual fund section over the weekend. What is Mason Hawkins investing in? His largest position is in Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) equaling 7.6% of holdings.

Japan was also a big theme with investments in NipponKoa Insurance, Olympus, Nikko Cordial, being all top holdings. Other Asian holdings included Chueng Kong and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (NYSE: FFH).

Mexico-based Cemex Sab De CV (NYSE: CX) also topped the list along with European holdings Renault and Nestle.

Regarding U.S. holdings, in addition to Dell, Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (NYSE: IR) was at the top of the list.

One theme was certain, Hawkins is allocating a lot more of his capital outside the United States. Prior to this decade, Longleaf and Hawkins were not big international investors.

The crème de la crème of portfolio managers met up in New York to exchange investment ideas at the Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference last week. Presenters included turnaround expert Wilbur Ross, Joe Rosenberg who has managed money at Loews Corporation (NYSE: LTR) forever, Bill Miller of Legg Mason Inc (NYSE: LM) and Mason Hawkins, Chairman of Southeastern Asset Management.

Some of the highlights:

• General theme was favoring large cap over small cap
• Technology is coming back into favor in addition to healthcare
• Investors should avoid Asia

Mason Hawkins ended the conference not recommending individual stocks but focusing more on investment advisory prose: have the discipline to say no, be patient and wait for the right opportunity, be willing to stand on your own when no one agrees with you, and take advantage of other peoples fear and greed. That investment advice pretty much follows the thoughts of many of the presenters.