Java 5: 2004. Java 6: 2006. Acquisition: 2009-2010. Java 7: 2011. Yu're kind of right, but I had always interpreted that the acquisition had delayed every decision-making and effectively halted any release of Java, until they got the approval of the acquirer about the contents and scope of the release.
I have a feeling that it was abandoned by Sun, thanks to Oracle we have Java 7, 8 and we will have 9 next year.
They have the money, which Sun lacked so there are resources to develop Java as a language.