Sun's revenue drops 20 percent ahead of Oracle buy

28.04.2009
Sun Microsystems reported a sharp drop in revenue for its third fiscal quarter, as the company battled uncertainty about its future along with the global recession.

Reports that Sun was up for sale surfaced in mid-March and analysts had speculated that the rumors would disrupt efforts to close deals at the end of the quarter, which closed March 29. The initial suitor was reportedly IBM, but in the end it was Oracle that said it had snapped up Sun two weeks ago, for US$7.4 billion.

Sun's revenue for the quarter was $2.61 billion, it announced Tuesday, down 20 percent from a year earlier and below the $2.86 billion that financial analysts had been expecting, according to Thomson Reuters.

Its net loss was $201 million, or $0.27 per share, wider than last year's loss of $34 million, or $0.04 per share. This year's figure included a restructuring charge of $46 million, related mostly to the 5,000 to 6,000 layoffs that Sun announced in November.

Sun executives made no comment on the quarter in the company's press release and the company did not hold its usual conference call to discuss the results, presumably because of the pending acquisition.