Hört sich leider nicht ganz so prickelnd an:
Sun Micro Layoff Rumors Persist, but Timing Remains Unclear
Dow Jones Newswires
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) appears to be preparing a new round of layoffs that could take place as early as September, according to analysts and industry executives.
The depth of the cuts appears yet undetermined, but Sun executives apparently have acknowledged their necessity, said one industry executive who asked not to be named. He described the atmosphere inside the company as chaotic.
Rumors of a planned restructuring at Sun have circulated in Silicon Valley for a number of weeks. Several Wall Street analysts also admitted to hearing the speculation, but not being able to confirm the timing.
Ashok Kumar, an analyst at US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, said he has heard Sun executives talk about making job cuts. But he said he didn't know whether they would take the form of an increase in the release of poor performers or whether a bigger wave of eliminations would take place.
Sun spokeswoman Diane Carlini said she was not aware of any planned layoffs at Sun, but suggested the speculation could be tied to leadership changes at the company. New heads of Sun's hardware organization and its sales, software and services groups are forming new executive teams and assessing their needs.
Sun also on recent earnings conference calls has indicated it would reduce its 39,000-person work force by about 1,000 people through attrition, Ms. Carlini said.
Following the close of trading today, Sun will conduct a midquarter update conference call where some analysts expect it to maintain its guidance for first-quarter sales to fall between 10% and 15% from the fiscal fourth quarter. There was no indication layoffs would be announced.
However, personnel cuts would likely be well-received by investors, who have watched Sun slip from lucrative profits to four quarterly losses. The maker of hefty Unix servers that corporations use to run critical business systems and store data since returned to a slim profit in its June- ending fourth quarter, but warned it of a modest loss expected in its first quarter.
Wall Street could see the cuts at a company with $3.4 billion in fourth- quarter revenue as a healthy dose of cost cutting.
"Their revenue is large enough that they should be making money," said Douglas Whitman, a fund manager at Whitman Capital.
The cuts would be the second in Sun's history. In October, in the midst of a business slowdown following last year's terrorist attacks, the company pruned 3, 900 jobs, or 9% of its work force.
Giga Information Group senior analyst Rob Enderlee, who has heard the restructuring rumors, said tech companies like Sun have "all cut too little. It does look like they need to do another round."
-By Mark Boslet, Dow Jones Newswires; 650-496-1366; mark.boslet@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Nachbörslich verliert SUNW 8 UScent bzw. 2,09% auf 3,75 $.
Grüße von
Sun Micro Layoff Rumors Persist, but Timing Remains Unclear
Dow Jones Newswires
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) appears to be preparing a new round of layoffs that could take place as early as September, according to analysts and industry executives.
The depth of the cuts appears yet undetermined, but Sun executives apparently have acknowledged their necessity, said one industry executive who asked not to be named. He described the atmosphere inside the company as chaotic.
Rumors of a planned restructuring at Sun have circulated in Silicon Valley for a number of weeks. Several Wall Street analysts also admitted to hearing the speculation, but not being able to confirm the timing.
Ashok Kumar, an analyst at US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, said he has heard Sun executives talk about making job cuts. But he said he didn't know whether they would take the form of an increase in the release of poor performers or whether a bigger wave of eliminations would take place.
Sun spokeswoman Diane Carlini said she was not aware of any planned layoffs at Sun, but suggested the speculation could be tied to leadership changes at the company. New heads of Sun's hardware organization and its sales, software and services groups are forming new executive teams and assessing their needs.
Sun also on recent earnings conference calls has indicated it would reduce its 39,000-person work force by about 1,000 people through attrition, Ms. Carlini said.
Following the close of trading today, Sun will conduct a midquarter update conference call where some analysts expect it to maintain its guidance for first-quarter sales to fall between 10% and 15% from the fiscal fourth quarter. There was no indication layoffs would be announced.
However, personnel cuts would likely be well-received by investors, who have watched Sun slip from lucrative profits to four quarterly losses. The maker of hefty Unix servers that corporations use to run critical business systems and store data since returned to a slim profit in its June- ending fourth quarter, but warned it of a modest loss expected in its first quarter.
Wall Street could see the cuts at a company with $3.4 billion in fourth- quarter revenue as a healthy dose of cost cutting.
"Their revenue is large enough that they should be making money," said Douglas Whitman, a fund manager at Whitman Capital.
The cuts would be the second in Sun's history. In October, in the midst of a business slowdown following last year's terrorist attacks, the company pruned 3, 900 jobs, or 9% of its work force.
Giga Information Group senior analyst Rob Enderlee, who has heard the restructuring rumors, said tech companies like Sun have "all cut too little. It does look like they need to do another round."
-By Mark Boslet, Dow Jones Newswires; 650-496-1366; mark.boslet@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Nachbörslich verliert SUNW 8 UScent bzw. 2,09% auf 3,75 $.
Grüße von
