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Sun will cut jobs to try and help cut costs

When Jonathan Schwartz became Sun's new CEO he said that he was against making deep job cuts to help turn the company around.  But it looks like Sun has run out of ideas and analysts were right, Sun will cut jobs -- and no, not Steve Jobs.  The company's chief financial officer, Michael Lehman, said "We are now ready to resize the company," during a technology conference that was held yesterday in San Francisco.  Sun has not publicly announced which jobs within the company are at risk. 

Sun co-founder and former CEO, Scott McNealy, has long been opposed massive job cuts.  With Sun reporting net loss quarter after quarter, it's hard to say we were surprised about this.

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hmmm what about open source of the java?
By nangryo on 5/24/2006 6:17:17 AM , Rating: 1
I wonder if this jobs-cut has somethin to do with the planning to make sun's java open source recently....

Maybe because they are in the verge of bancrupty so they let go off java for the goodness of all? Hmm....




RE: hmmm what about open source of the java?
By themelon on 5/24/2006 9:08:28 AM , Rating: 2
negative on both. Job cuts have nothing to do with Java open source. There are less people at Sun that work directly on Java core tech than there are that work on Solaris core OS(~400 people). They are talking about 5-8000 reduction in head count. At least that is the rumor. Job cuts are strictly triming dead weight for cost savings.

They are far from being on the virge of BK. They still gave 5-6 billion cash on hand. They may be losing money every quarter but it is less than a couple hundred million a shot. 5 billion will last a while.


RE: hmmm what about open source of the java?
By RedStar on 5/24/2006 11:33:08 AM , Rating: 2
"triming dead weight"

nice way to sum up real people who worked at sun for years.
They were never needed you say... It was them that were pulling down the comapny.

:(


RE: hmmm what about open source of the java?
By michael2k on 5/24/2006 11:45:13 AM , Rating: 2
Sometimes it's true too. A person at a big company can "coast" on good years, but become real deadweight in problem years.

It's like carrying a little bit of extra fat during rich years, and losing weight during lean years, right?


RE: hmmm what about open source of the java?
By ToeCutter on 5/24/2006 1:59:49 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Sometimes it's true too. A person at a big company can "coast" on good years, but become real deadweight in problem years.


Uh, no.

It's about experiencing explosive success, filling the ranks quickly to deal with the unexpected growth, and then discovering that you're completely incapable of sustaining the growth, only to be forced to let people go when times become tough.

Low ranking employees seldom bear the responsibility for getting laid off. Just about every single mass layoff in American history has been due to some degree of mis-management by executive level staff. The list is long: Enron, Global Crossing, Delphi, Visteon, Ford, GM, etc.

It's happened to me twice, despite earning my former employers millions in revenue before I was "let go". I wasn't let go because I was under-performing, I was let go because my employers could no longer afford my services. Layoffs are kinda like filing bankruptcy against your employees: "I mis-managed my company, so I can no longer afford to honor the committment I made to you when we agreed to work together."

The reason McNealy has always been against job cuts: He realized that job cuts were ultimately due to his mis-management of the company. Impending layoffs were the result of his failed leadership. If Sun had managed to sustain their growth, they'd be hiring people, not firing them!

Sun got lucky. The dot-com boom made McNealy and his buddies rich as everyone scrambled to provide ANY type of online service. His inital success briefly gave him a set of balls that he used almost exclusively to piss off Gates. Now, he'll pass into obscurity, like the founders of Commodore, Atari and SGI.

Good riddance, I say.


By TomZ on 5/24/2006 2:17:50 PM , Rating: 3
Your assumption is that your employer has the ability to control everything regarding the business - customer decisions, market trends, economic and business conditions, etc. - and that any drop-offs in sales/profit are a sign of mismanagement. I've got news for you - managers do not have as much control over businesses as you think. It is entirely possible that someone do a great job running a business, but due to external factors, the business could still experience a decrease in sales leading to a layoff.

I'm not making a specific statement about Sun or the other companiese you noted, and probably in some cases there was some mismanagement. But you cannot make an absolute statement that says that in all cases it is management. This just simply isn't true. Like it or not, management cannot possibly control all aspects of the business and its surrounding envinronment.

Finally, when a company hires you, where do you get the expectation of permanent, perpetual employment? Employment in this country is for the most part at-will on the part of both employee and employer. That means that you can quit your job, and at the same time, your employer can decide that your position no longer exists. That gives both you and your employer the freedom needed to mutually achieve needed goals.


By TomZ on 5/24/2006 9:15:39 AM , Rating: 2
I agree with the other poster above that the cuts probably are not related directly to the open sourcing of Java.

But I think an argument could be made that their strategy with respect to Java is one of the reasons for their losses and thus the need for layoffs. What seems to have been lacking is a plan for how to generate revenue from their Java technology. They have developed some wonderful stuff, then stupidly (IMO) gave it all away. Some industry estimates are that they were making less than $10M annually from Java licensing. It's nice from the perspective of "give it all away," but it is kind of bad from a Sun business perspective.


Sun layoffs
By wallijonn on 5/24/2006 10:28:50 AM , Rating: 2
I wonder if the number of people who will be layed off is the exact same amount of money as the signing bonus for Jonathan Scwartz, the new CEO?




RE: Sun layoffs
By TomZ on 5/24/2006 10:39:08 AM , Rating: 2
He gets $1M salary and up to $2M performance-related bonus:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2154955/sun-chie...

So, assuming Sun lets go of 5000 workers, unless they are each being paid $400 annually, they wouldn't be able to keep their jobs if Schwartz gives up his bonus.

I don't think Schwartz' compensation/bonus is out-of-line, do you?


RE: Sun layoffs
By AkaiRo on 5/24/2006 11:34:00 AM , Rating: 2
They are going to be laying off more than 5,000 (according to an inside rumor I heard from several vendors we deal with). High four (integer) digit to low five (integer) digit headcount. Blood on the Sun for sure in the next few months.

Cool Threads has been received poorly by Sun's customers and they are losing ground to Linux, AIX, and HP-UX installations. Purchasing StorageTek hasn't helped them much either.


By OrSin on 5/24/2006 8:48:55 AM , Rating: 2
I know people that used to work for Sun. They have been job cutting for over 3 years. They are just announcing thins so thier stock can fel good about them turning the company around. Its sad but, offical layoffs usually raise your stock prices.




Sun Layoffs
By hifiaudio on 5/24/2006 10:01:26 AM , Rating: 2
Are they laying off their banner flying pilots?




The Sun is down at SUN
By crystal clear on 5/25/2006 2:05:35 AM , Rating: 2
The weather forcast at SUN is cold/cloudy/thunder /rain, No sunshine for the near future.
This was expected (layoff + cost cutting),everybody at SUN new its coming anytime soon.
They have no choice but to do it(SUN),only consolation they can get is -they have company.HP,DELL,INTEL,etc all in the same cost cutting/layoff boat.
They have to blame themselves for landing in this situation,they cannot blame it on external factors.
SUN HAS LOST ITS SUNSHINE....(past glory)




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