Santa Clara, California - US server and software maker Sun
Microsystems Inc posted losses of 209 million dollars for the foruth
quarter, dragged down by restructuring costs, but fared better than
analysts' expectations.
At the same time last year the company reported a net profit of
260 million dollars. Sales suffered from the impact of the global
economic crisis, dropping 11 per cent to 3.2 billion dollars, the
Santa Clara, California-based company said Tuesday.
Nonetheless, Sun's results beat analyst's expectations, as they
were weighted down by costs of 222 million dollars for restructuring
and payments to compensate laid-off workers, without those costs, Sun
posted profits of 114 million dollars.
Sun, the world's fourth-largest server maker after IBM,
Hewlett-Packard and Dell, announced plans in November to sack 6,000
of its 33,000-strong workforce over the next year, a move expected to
save between 700 and 800 million dollars.
Shares jumped by 5.6 per cent to about 4 dollars in extended
trading, but Sun's shares lost 75 per cent of their value in the past
year.
Sun's high-performance servers are used in the computer systems of
large corporations, often in the financial sector, which was
particularly hard-hit by the global credit crisis.
Like its competitors, Sun is moving towards providing services and
software to reduce dependence on the hardware business and provide
more stable earnings.
Software earnings rose by 21 per cent in the last quarter, a ray
of light to Sun head Jonathan Schwartz.
USA
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