Sun Microsystems Cuts 3,000 Staff Due to Delays

By Jane McEntegart
published

Sun Microsystems today said it would lay off a further 3,000 employees because of the delays in closing the deal with Oracle.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sun Microsystems will cut roughly 10 percent of its workforce and, according to an SEC filing, the layoffs will result in charges ranging from $75 million to $125 million over the next several quarters.

Back in April, Oracle announced that it had agreed to buy Sun for $7.4 billion, or $9.50 per share. However, here we are months later and the deal has yet to close. This is due to delays at the hands of European Union Antitrust regulators who are busy looking into whether the acquisition would give Oracle a database software monopoly.

Reuters cites Oracle CEO Larry Ellison as saying Sun is losing about $100 million a month because of the delays.

Jane McEntegart
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ssalim
    Stupid European Union.
    Reply
  • Miharu
    Boooooo!
    Reply
  • cyberkuberiah
    but the eu delay is not the sole reason for layoffs . oracle doesn't wanna feed all the staff anyway after the acquisition is complete , so why not let sun itself do the cleanup ?
    Reply
  • hellwig
    The EU needs to get its head out of its ass. Oracle will not have a Database monopoly. First off, Microsoft relentlessly pushes SQL Server. PostgreSQL is a much better database than MySQL (and neither competes with Oracle anyway). And believe it or not, Sybase is still around too.
    Reply
  • Mr_Man
    I've figured it out: Europe is declaring a war of attrition on the US.
    Reply
  • cookoy
    3000 is a lot. Surely there would be some talented and skilled people among them. Oracle may want to look at their qualifications. Sun at this point may not be interested in keeping its people as all it wanted is to sell off the company and get it done with.
    Reply
  • JMcEntegart
    cyberkuberiahbut the eu delay is not the sole reason for layoffs . oracle doesn't wanna feed all the staff anyway after the acquisition is complete , so why not let sun itself do the cleanup ?
    True enough. It's not uncommon for companies to 'trim the fat' before an acquisition is finalised. That said, there's been tons of layoffs from Sun in the last year or so.
    Reply
  • Pei-chen
    They can all go work for Goldman Sachs. I heard Goldman is investing billion into a software that will not only manipulate the market like their current software but will manipulate the world.

    Germany could declare war on France (to drive up German firm’s market value); India send troops to Iraq (decrease oil future); Canada have a communist revolution (wipe out all small investor) all at the click of a mouse.
    Reply
  • hawkwindeb
    Remember that last year Sun announced 5000-6000 would be laid-off and they have not burned through all them mostly cause of non-US country's policy requirements for long advanced notice to employees etc. So, since the Oracle transfer of ownweship/control has not happened within the time period expected sept-nov, seems reasonable to me to restate Sun's intentions as required by law.
    Reply
  • lifelesspoet
    I'm sorry, but am I the only one that is against market monopolies. Sure, laws and regulations slow down development but so do monopolies. More often then not, a company will do something dirty and blame a regulation to divert attention to the government.
    Thumb me down if you want, but this has to be said. The government isn't perfect, but its suppose to protect us.
    Reply