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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.

Continued after the break.

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Sources have revealed to the Wall Street Journal that Yahoo! will announce layoffs when they reveal their quarterly earnings tomorrow.  The exact number of jobs affected isn’t know but is estimated to be at least 1,000.  The move isn’t much of a surprise, however.  Last month they hired a consulting firm to help them streamline their operations.

The company, which once boasted the top search engine on the net, has been struggling as of late.  Its shares have fallen 32% over the past month, its deal with Google was put on hold due to an FTC investigation, and earlier this year they rejected a takeover bid by Microsoft.  Shares entered the week at $12.90 after hitting a 5-year low of $11.37 last week.  Microsoft takeover bid was for $33 a share.

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The current economic conditions have begun to take its toll on US companies. Among them is AT&T, which is in the process of cutting 1.5-percent of their workforce. This news was revealed by a ruling filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

AT&T employees who will be hit by the layoffs are those who have no direct contact with AT&T customers and are said to include those in management. The plans for the layoff’s are part of AT&T’s ongoing streamlining of operational activity. Despite laying off a big chunk of their employees, AT&T is expecting to get a pre-tax charge of $374 million as a result of this layoffs. But don’t worry because AT&T is attempting to make sure that the remaining workforce after this layoff plan is carried out will still be able to manage and maintain the company’s stability.

Read [CNET]

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Sprint Nextel has announced that it will close 125 of its retail stores, eliminate over 4,000 3rd party distribution points, and cut 4,000 jobs. Company officials say they expect the cuts to be complete by June. The job cuts affect most departments, including sales, marketing, product and development, network, information technology, finance, human resources, legal and communications but will not be extended to the customer service or repair departments. Sprint, the third largest provider, has been struggling to compete with Verizon and AT&T since it’s botched merger with Nextel two years ago and lost 683,000 subscribers last quarter. Sprint says the moves will save $700 to $800 million a year.

Read[The Washington Post]

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