Sun reports horror story first quarter

Posted October 31, 2008 at 07:00 AM by Shawn Ingram

Section: Computers

Sun Microsystems announced a horrific quarter yesterday—a loss for what is now the third quarter in a row.  This past quarter resulted in a net loss of $1.68 billion, with a revenue of $2.99 billion.  The same quarter last year had a net income of $89 million, and a $3.22 billion revenue.  Ouch, that can’t go over too well.

Sun also hinted at possible layoffs in the future, which, while depressing, isn’t all that surprising given the current state of the economy.  There were also reports of slowing sales in its main server lines.  It seems open sourcing a number of it’s software hasn’t helped either. 

There is good news though.  Sun was unusually open about its products lines according to the New York Times article, with the report “showing strong growth with some of its more radical server designs and traditionally slow-selling storage products.“  The company has also made $1 billion over its last fiscal year which is impressive, though makes me wonder how much it made during its prime.

As the creator of Java, OpenOffice, Solaris, ZFS and other technologies, it’s sad to see Sun doing poorly.  Sure it isn’t all that important to consumers, and Solaris isn’t exactly the most popular of Operating Systems, but Sun does own Java.  It’s very good at acquiring companies and products that are worthwhile but need more financial backing, like VirtualBox,an open source virtualization tool.  Plus, its innovations are at the very least interesting whether they be ZFS for those who care about file systems, or Looking Glass for those who like (somewhat more useful than compiz) eye candy.

Read [New York Times]