Sun Microsystems to Cut Up to 5,000 Jobs

Washington Post ^ | 5/31/06 | Dan Goodin

[advance_copy]

And so begins the slow demise of a true American classic - reminds me of the dying days of DEC and WANG. Saw this coming. Sun is not able to keep UltraSPARCs ahead of the Intels and AMDs.

Demand for high-end servers just isn't there. And why pay big bucks for a Sun when you only need a few PCs disguised as servers? Sun is selling AMDx64 and x86-based low-end machines now. That stings the pride in a big way.

True innovation in applications, which increases server-cycle demand and accordingly keeps Sun in business, is dying in India, IMHO.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

What's going to happen to Java?

[coconutt2000]

Sun is considering opening up Java to open source.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9593_22-6072760.html

[Dog Gone]

Nothing. Sun is in no danger of going under. Just about all industries go through a growth cycle where they get too big and have to cut back and get smarter to generate the same returns.

[SamAdams76]

I live about three miles from the old Wang headquarters in Lowell, MA. It was a monstrosity of a building and I remember going there around 1982 when Wang was at it's peak. For those who do not remember, Wang was an absolute giant in the computer industry. However, they placed their bets on stand-alone word processors (aka "dumb terminals") and were utterly swamped over by the PC revolution.

During the mid-1990s, that Wang building was bought for a song and was turned into a multi-purpose office complex.

Sun Microsystems has a huge complex down the road in Burlington, MA. I suspect that other tenants will be moving in there soon.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

You should see the digs they built for themselves in Broomfield, CO!

Hubris anyone?

[JasonC]

The future of business computing is not going to be to serve webpages, but to digest them and understand them. (Including own-company reports, internally generated web logs, etc). Which is going to take all the 64-bit, supercomputing-power-everywhere coming down the pike. What Sun should be focused on is providing a nice open architecture for that, a way to get all the computing power to wire together effortlessly, so it can be thrown at any computational task. From any mix of operating systems etc. Their networked computing idea still has great merit, and the applications will be there. But they have to make it all significantly easier for the rest of us, to have a real role.

[isthisnickcool]

[The Duke]

Nothing. Sun is in no danger of going under. Just about all industries go through a growth cycle where they get too big and have to cut back and get smarter to generate the same returns.

e.g. SGI?

[advance_copy]

The future of business computing is...

I don't disagree about the apps for munging vast amounts of various data elements. But it just doesn't compare to the ICs of the 70s, the shift from mains-minis to PCs in the 80s, the growth of the Internet in the 90s. Honestly, there really is no innovation of the sort that revolutionizes business like that, and there hasn't been for at least six years.

The only thing I see out there that comes close is mobility: VPNs, WiFi, G3, etc.

[Dog Gone]

SGI went through the same kind of growing pains, but unless you know something I don't, Sun isn't in any danger of filing for bankruptcy.

[DoctorMichael]

Yahoo Sunw board:
http://messages.yahoo.com/bbs?action=t&type=f&board=4686929&sid=4686929

McNutty has about 200 VPs on board; The company is top heavy; he never made any deep cuts himself during the last 5 years of quarter-after-quarter losses; he ran the company like his little fiefdom and said to hell with the shareholders; turned the company over to his pony-tailed clone; this may be too little too late.

[rolling_stone]

Just about all industries go through a growth cycle where they get too big and have to cut back and get smarter to generate the same returns.

I'm still waiting for the Federal and California Governments to cut back and get smart (er)...time for us stockholders to put in a new management team...lean and mean...

[snoringbear]

Well, don't really have a dog in this fight but hey, it's raining outside and I'm bored. So, here's my two bits; personally I have always thought Scott Mcnealy to be a whinny, spoiled, little techy turd. He was always crying that MS was not playing fair, yada, yada, yada. So, I really don't much care what happens to Sun. Let go under for all I care.

[fight_truth_decay]

CUT http://www.tradingmarkets.com/tm.site/news/TOP%20STORY/269012/
In addition to the restructuring activities, Sun's board has approved the company's operational goals and priorities for its fiscal 2007 business plan, which includes operating income goals of at least 4% of revenues for fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 and of at least 10% of revenues long-term.

The company also said it expects fiscal 2007 revenue growth in the low-to-middle single digits and a gross margin of around 43%.

In the most recent quarter, the company reported a much wider loss though its revenues grew 21% for the period.

Separately, Sun Microsystems said that its board of directors voted to eliminate the company's shareholder rights plan. The shareholder rights plan was originally scheduled to expire on July 25, 2012.

The new policy provides that the board must obtain stockholder approval prior to adopting a poison pill, unless the board determines that, under the circumstances then existing, it would be in the best interests of the company and its stockholders to adopt a poison pill without prior stockholder approval. But, if a poison pill is adopted by the board without prior stockholder approval, the poison pill must provide that it will expire within one year of adoption unless ratified by stockholders.

The board also amended the company's bylaws to provide that directors will be elected by majority vote in uncontested elections.



Shares of Sun Microsystems closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $4.63, up 8 cents or 1.76% and remained unchanged in after hours trading.

[VeniVidiVici]

Ain't that the truth. They NEVER seem to cut management positions.

[ikka]

Sun needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Just TRY to buy their AMD64 systems with any kind of discount - you end up in a maze of resellers who have no incentive to cut the price unless you are buying huge quantities. They need to produce scads of their UltraSPARC CPUs and sell them CHEEP in order to grow their customer base; they aren't doing it.

[Vince Ferrer]

You should see the digs they built for themselves in Broomfield, CO! Hubris anyone?

Also kind of hard to get rid of when the going gets tough. There aren't that many employers who would be willing to buy a building complex that large, and to sublease it to many companies would take a very long time.

[Tiny]

Might this simply be a case of product quality? My experiences with Sun servers has not been pleasant. We run servers from HP, IBM, Compaq, NCR, Dell, and Sun. (I don't do the purchasing, just help keep them running) The Sun servers have always had excessive down time. Over a period of 6 months we replaced everything on one Sun and it still crashes constantly from a variety of problems. And just try to get a replacement parts from Mexico when a hard drive crashes and the Sun tech who installed the RAID screwed it up.

So Sun is in trouble? Golly, I wonder why. I told my boss I would leave the company if they purchased another piece of Sun equipment, they aren't worth the hassle.

[Revolting cat!]

Where is the innovation that we saw in the 70s, 80s: PDP-11s, VAXen, Wang, Datapoint, Alpha, Sparc? (Others.) We're now stuck with the x86 hardware architecture, and two fundamentally flawed operating system architectures, both dating back to the ideas of the 70s. A fine mess and a reminder that marketing rules - just check the Ditzy Chicks new album's position on the charts, if you wanna forget all those Hollywood boycotting FReepers rushing to spend $9 per ticket to see the D'uh Code a week or two ago!