back to article Sun: Q4 sales to drop by a third, sees deeper losses

Server and software maker Sun Microsystems, whose shareholders are getting ready to vote on the $5.6bn takeover deal by Oracle this Thursday, got some food for thought as it announced sales were slammed in the fourth fiscal quarter and that it would be driven to a steep loss for the period. Specifically, Sun said that it was …

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  1. Matt Bryant.
    Flame

    Sun is dead

    Neener neener neener! Told you so. Hee hee hee... Morons!

    I know all. Hire me and you will never go wrong.

    /SP&L

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Run for IBM!!!

    Last year Oracle bought BEA and raised prices 47%. I fully expect Oracle to double prices for Sun gear and lay off 50% of the employees to turn this cash cow into a profit engine. We don't like Oracle because they are the hardest vendor to deal with and their audits are ruthless. We thought software was free to use once we got an enterprise license agreement, then the audit showed us we got hooked on crack and the dealer had no mercy. Fortunately, we started moving all our gear to Power systems two years ago to virtualize our Oracle databases, now we will look at DB2.

    Mr Mojo

  3. Norfolk Enchants Paris

    Amazing

    that Sun lasted this bloody long with all the drivel they've given us o'er the years.

    I'm off to enjoy the sunset.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    @matt bryant

    Ah - It's a pot-kettle scenario.....

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Matt Bryant

    Even a PHUXtard could see that the market would be nervous about buying Sun kit in the face of the potential takeover.

    So if I'm ever looking for a half-wit that spouts the bleeding obvious all the time, is so narrow-minded he can look through a keyhole with both eyes at the same time, I'll know exactly where to find you.....

    In the PHUX users group meeting, being held in a phone box.

  6. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    RE: Sun is dead

    Looks like the Sunshiners aren't even trying to mount a defence before they wheel out the fake Matt Bryant login. Not really surprised, though, as even the most ardent Sunshiner can't still be holding out much hope of a new Sunrise. I was hoping at least one would try and tell us it is all just the recession, that being a third down wasn't that bad, etc, etc, but I suppose even they have finally got a clue.

    I will have to go do the maths and work out of the Sun quarterly loss is actually a larger amount than the golden parachute payouts to the Sun board. Amazing that they can actually demand so much money to basically walk away from the mountain of fail they made.

    /<insert amused smile at childish Sunshiner antics here>

  7. Captain Thyratron
    Troll

    uh, guys...

    See the period? Fake account.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Management Change

    It is an almost unanimous opinion of outsiders and anonymous insiders that Sun had a serious management problem. Oracle's takeover is a chance for improvement. Having previously worked at Sun, I am constantly amazed at the number of managers that are still there despite all the layoffs. The time for BS is past.

  9. Jan 7

    Now that SUN is (as good as) dead...

    Now that SUN is (as good as) dead, will Matt -having nothing else to say- disappear? Or will he go the SCO-way and start picking at IBM?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Intelligent responses

    Why do The The Register allow such blatantly ignorant and childish responses from Matt Bryant but edit out others that they don't deem suitable ?

    Matt - do you realise how your posts make you come across ?

    Time for some decent journalism and constructive comments PLEASE !

  11. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    RE: Intelligent responses

    "Why do The The Register allow such blatantly ignorant and childish responses from Matt Bryant but edit out others that they don't deem suitable ?....." Are the Sunshiners hoping a little fakery will get me banned? Boy, you guys really have issues dealing with any view that doesn't correspond to your own.

    "....Matt - do you realise how your posts make you come across ?...." Well, a tad smarter than the average Sunshiner given the topic.

    "....Time for some decent journalism and constructive comments PLEASE !" And where's your input on the subject then? Given that Larry has said he plans on making $1.5bn from at least some of the existing Sun product and services in the coming year, would you care to hypothesise on how? I'm guessing you're not thinking employee cuts and hikes in MySQL licensing. Maybe you still believe the Slowaris on x64 is still going to storm the datacenter, despite the uncertainty, the established Linux opposition, and the NetApp courtcase over ZFS? Please enlgihten us.

    /this should be amusing at least!

  12. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    RE: Intelligent responses

    Alrighty then! Just because I can, I'm going to reject all of Mr Bryant's output for the rest of the day. The rest of you can frolic in the golden pastures and hit each other in the jaw to your heart's content.

    Normal service will be resumed tomorrow. Matt, you may use this time to... I don't know, ponder life's mysteries, or put a shelf up, or something? Enjoy.

  13. Billl
    Go

    1.5B profit

    The ONLY way for Oracle to make 1.5B in profit from Sun is to continue selling Sun hardware. The only way to make 2.0B in profit the next year - as promised - is to sell more Sun hardware. For the naysayers to say that Oracle will immediately sell off the Sun hardware business is ludicrous. Sun doesn't even make 1.5-2.0B in revenues on software, so that profit must come from hardware. 'nuf said...

  14. Jonathan Schwatrz
    Thumb Up

    RE: RE: Intelligent responses

    Dear Unworthies,

    I would just like to say that I fully support Ms Bees graceful and intelligent foray into selective censorship. SUN under My Inspired Leadership has often used such measures to squash similar attempts at blaspemous thoughts in My Crusade to spread The Sunshine. Soon I will start the Conversion of our new recruits at Oracle so that they too can share in the Wonder of My Sunshine!

    Blessings (and $millions) be upon Me,

    Jonathan Schwartz - that's GOD to you!

  15. EnigmaForce

    RE: Intelligent responses

    Sarah Bee FTW :)

    Speaking of which, where's the FTW icon?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sun execs are not on the agenda for Oracle World

    So much for Oracle caring about anything except stopping MySQL use Solaris to push Oracle Linux and owning JAVA. They got those for a good price. Hardware is a cash cow business....they are not looking to increase revenue...jack up prices and hatchet costs.

    Solaris is no longer "free"

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    RE: 1.5B profit #

    "The only way to make 2.0B in profit the next year - as promised - is to sell more Sun hardware."

    OR, to sell off the hardware and related parts of the business for that amount...

  18. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    Morning, Sunshiners

    So, Ms Bee gave you your day without counters to post your insights into where Soracle might go, and you posted..... Well, nothing. In fact, apart from Billl's rather odd belief that the hardware bizz that killed Sun can somehow make Oracle money unchanged (how?), the Sunshiners all seem to have scuttled back to their holes to sulk. Or maybe they were just busy updating their LinkedIn profiles in prep for a bit of jobhunting....

    Not one has even pointed out with the usual boundless optimism that there are companies shopping for storage businesses to plug into their existing ranges. CISCO may not have wanted all of Sun, but they may buy the storage bizz. And, most amusing of all, Dell is currently shopping around for something similar. Now wouoldn't it be ironic if Dell, the patron saint of x86 and Windows, ended up buying parts of Sun to make appliances with. It could work, especially if they managed to get de-dupe working in ZFS (and NetApp were persuaded to settle the courtcase). So, Larry sells the Sun storage bizz, makes his profit and that gives him time to take the axe to the rest of the Sun carcass.

    /Enjoy!

  19. Billl
    FAIL

    re: Morning, Sunshiners #

    "Well, nothing. In fact, apart from Billl's rather odd belief that the hardware bizz that killed Sun can somehow make Oracle money unchanged (how?),"

    Who said unchanged? Sun's overhead is HUGE! Oracle can cut a ton of the overhead and continue to sell Sun's more profitable servers including the M-Series and T-Series. I'm also quite certain that given the growth rates, the X-Series will thrive. I would hate to see the Netra line go, and my understanding is that it is really quite profitable, so my guess is that the telecom boys will convince Larry to keep it going... Solaris is the number 1 Unix, so why would you get rid of that?

    Matt, how can you possibly believe that Oracle can make 1.5B from raising costs of MySQL? That's incredibly naive and obviously just FUD. Stop repeating HP FUD and use some logic. My guess is that Oracle can make 1.5B in profits just by leveraging their HR and axing Suns HR. Lot's of overhead to be cleaned up, especially redundant management. The more I hear Larry, the more I see Oracle actually getting into the server business...

    It is possible that Oracle will get rid of the storage business, specifically the tape business. I see HP being a buyer. I'm not sure that IBM would be allowed to buy it. It could also just be spun off.

    As far as NetAPP, most of the so called patents have been thrown out, and there are just a couple of patents still in contention. They took the case out of the patent troll state of Texas and put it back into California, where both firms reside and the case should have been from the beginning. I really don't see this going anywhere.

  20. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    FAIL

    RE: re: Morning, Sunshiners #

    ".....Oracle can cut a ton of the overhead and continue to sell Sun's more profitable servers including the M-Series and T-Series....." Slight problem with that idea. Selling those lines didn't dig Sun out of the hole they dug themselves with UltraSPANKed, and sales are dropping like the proverbial in the current downturn, which means even less money coming in. Rock was the big white hope for SPARC, with it dead Sun has precious little chance in the enterprise datacenter server market. Niagara is too niche and SPARC64 just looks too risky. Without massive investment in a Rock replacement, Sun is left with the "me-too" Galaxy servers, and they have very little appeal compared to IBM's xSeries or hp's ProLiant range. But that massive investment is just what Larry can't do, 'cos he has promised to make a profit rather than open with a big loss. The only way he can make that profit is by increasng software licensing and support costs, and the cash cow is MySQL. Anyone seriously postulating that Larry is somehow going to be better at selling servers than Sun were before their fall has got to be kidding.

    ".....My guess is that Oracle can make 1.5B in profits just by leveraging their HR and axing Suns HR....." Even a fool like Ponytail wasn't paying $1.5bn on HR. Even if they cleaned out the entire Sun backoffice it wouldn't save them $1.5bn. Such pipedreams may carry weight with the Sunshine crowd but the rest of us are dealing with realities. And even then, Sun is making a loss - they would have to make a $2.5bn saving to make a $1.5bn profit. Please tell me you believe the Sun HR team cost $2.5bn just so we can have a really good laugh.

    ".....As far as NetAPP, most of the so called patents have been thrown out, and there are just a couple of patents still in contention....." It only takes one patent to kill ZFS. Which is one of the reasons the Linux community went with BTRFS, Oracle's own contribution, which doesn't come with a lawsuit around its neck.

    "....I really don't see this going anywhere." Well, apart from the obvious suspicion that, as a Sunshiner, you just don't want to see it going anywhere, I'm guessing you don't have much legal training. Despite it being transfered to California, the case has not died. Time is on NetApp's side as Larry needs to clear up the doubts around ZFS and Slowaris if he actually does want to make a go of it. In the meantime, hp's, IBM's, Microsoft's, Red's Hat et al's salesgrunts will be pointing out the uncertainties around Slowaris, what happens to ZFS if NetApp loses, the lack of a longterm roadmap for SPARC in any form, and offering those nice migration deals. The longer Larry wastes in court the more market share gets whittled away, the less money coming in to finance the Sun hardware bizz, which means less scope for re-investment or that magic $1.5bn figure. It's a vicous spiral and it killed Sun once already. The only way I can see for Larry to both massively cut costs and make a profit is by selling off large chunks of what was Sun and putting up the price of such products as MySQL.

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