Sun's stock drops sharply after 73% drop in profit

By Michael Hatamoto | Published August 1, 2008, 3:09 PM

A slowing economy has led computer server and software manufacturer Sun Microsystems to post a 73 percent drop in net income for its fourth fiscal quarter. So far in 2008, the company's stock has lost almost half of its value and most recently dropped 13 percent down to $9.24 per share.

Sun's share price hit a high point in October at $25.04, but has suffered a sharp decline since then. It bottomed out at $8.63 in the middle of last month, but had climbed to nearly $11 before Friday's earnings call.

The company's Q4 revenues were $3.78 billion, slightly lower than its $3.84 billion in revenue at the same time last year. The full fiscal year's revenues increased slightly from $13.87 billion one year ago to $13.88 billion this fiscal year.

The major fourth quarter profits plunge still beat Wall Street expectations, but Sun's immediate future could be turbulent due to the company's reliance on the US economy. Around 40 percent of Sun revenue is tied directly to companies based in the United States, who are cutting back spending due.

Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz warned that former multi-million dollar deals are now signing for numbers as low as $50,000. Sun also decided to expand its stock buyback program, adding another $1 billion to the $3 billion shares it has already purchased.

The fourth quarter, which ran from April to June, was Sun's sixth profitable quarter out of the past eight quarters. But analysts were quick to point out that it was profitable largely due to the company's cost-cutting efforts to help save money.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is seeing success, however, with its Niagara server line and with its Open Storage products, which will receive a stronger emphasis into the future.

Sun has had an up and down struggle with its financial forecasts over the past few years, with a change in command in 2004 seeing Scott McNealy ousted in favor of Schwartz. The company was forced over the past two years to launch several waves of job cuts to help lower costs, with around 6,500 employees losing their jobs. Almost 3,700 jobs were terminated immediately after Schwartz took over four years ago.

Sun Chief Financial Officer Michael Lehman said the company will continue to eliminate jobs until it has about 33,000 workers worldwide.

View comments by with a score of at least

Microsoft's Ray Ozzie: 'Nobody's going to be 100% open'

The mobile apps ecosystems of the world may converge over time, led by apps being ported over across platforms, according to the Chief Software Architect.

Will Firefox beat IE9 to Direct2D rendering?

Just days after Microsoft executives gave conference attendees a peek at a new rendering technology, a Mozilla contributor revealed he's working on the same thing.

Where there's smoke: Apple warranty stance raises troubling questions

Carmi Levy | Wide Angle Zoom: Smoking can be dangerous not only for your lungs, it appears, but for your Apple hardware warranty.

AOL's decision to rebrand as Aol. takes a bad brand and makes it worse

The idea behind the social Web is to crowd source before bringing out something new. But not at AOL, which new logo debuted with a cry of "fail!" across the blogosphere and Twittersphere today.

Microsoft 'worked with Apple' for Silverlight on iPhone, says Goldfarb

By not making such a big deal out of trying to stream video to the iPhone, Microsoft got a big deal out of it, revealed the Silverlight product manager.

Clicker.com cuts through the Web video chaos

In a world where homemade video and Hollywood movies travel the same pipeline, it's good to have a real search engine to cut through the clutter.

A case study in improving software: What Office 2010 can learn from Notion 3

A music composition product gambles with a complete overhaul, in an effort to make headway against two well-known competitors in a tough market.

Kindle 2 update adds battery life, native PDF reader

Amazon has pushed out an update to the Kindle 2 e-reader that lengthens battery life and adds a native PDF viewer.

Safari on iPhone gets competition from a $1 browser app

Apple likes to say it gives iPhone users a full browsing experience, but a new competitor tries to incorporate more desktop browser features.

Action Replay maker sues Microsoft for Xbox 360 'predatory technological barriers'

Third-party video game accessory maker Datel has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft over the Xbox 360's recent Dashboard update.

Microsoft's Bob Muglia and Ray Ozzie on Silverlight vs. standards

Bob Muglia: "We're trying to provide people with an environment that has capabilities that you just simply can't do today in the standards-based world."