Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey cut his target price for Sun Microsystems from $5 to $3, putting the company’s stock under some pressure this morning. His reason? Sun’s services are heavily concentrated in telecom and financial services, putting it at a disadvantage compared to its more diversified competitors, weakening its position during the economic downturn.
For Sun Microsystems, it has come down to this: The stock is now trading for the net value of the cash and investments on its balance sheet.
Ergo, you in theory could buy Sun today, pay off holders and the debt with the existing cash, and get the entire company for nothing.
Sun Microsystems announced plans on Friday to cut 5,000-6,000 jobs. It didn’t much help the company’s rep on Wall Street though–largely because the cuts can’t be blamed solely on the economy. Some analysts are encouraged by the announcement, others skeptical, given that headcount reductions were viewed as long needed and that Sun’s product strategy and use of operational expenses would benefit from some sharp wisdom.
Sun Microsystems Inc. has been struggling ever since the last economic downturn to consistently regain its footing, and things are grim again. On Tuesday, the systems and software maker gave Wall Street a nasty surprise with the news that it expects to report a worse-than-expected loss in the fiscal first quarter. It is also conducting an internal “impairment analysis” because some its business units may be now worth less than their carrying value.
I was poking around looking for an explanation for today’s slide in Sun Microsystems (JAVA) shares when I read a fairly astonishing AP piece from a couple of days ago on the pay package paid in the June 2008 fiscal year to CEO Jonathan Schwartz. It turns out that in fiscal 2008 Schwartz was paid $11 million, a 44 percent raise over his fiscal 2007 compensation package.
The steady crumbling of the value of the U.S. dollar over the last two years has given a big boost to reported earnings at many U.S. companies that sell goods overseas in local currencies but report in dollars.
It’s another rough morning for Sun Microsystems (JAVA) shares.
This morning, Sun posted results for its fiscal fourth quarter ended June that were consistent with the guidance provided in mid July.
The big after hours rally in Sun Microsystems (JAVA) shares, which took the stock up more than 10 percent, has now largely faded, with Street analysts nearly unanimous in their doubts about the near-term prospects for the company.
Fascinating. Sun Microsystems (JAVA), which has been under intense selling pressure in recent sessions, this afternoon announced preliminary results for its fiscal fourth quarter ended June which were obviously better than the Street had feared, sending the stock sharply higher.
Sun Microsystems (JAVA) shares this morning are down sharply to their lowest level since 1995, following a bearish note on the company from Caris & Co.’s Shebly Seyrafi, who cut his price target on the stock to $10.50 from $14.50 “to reflect lower margins following checks indicating that JAVA was aggressively pricing its products in [the fiscal fourth quarter] and to reflect the company’s challenging outlook.”
Large tech companies turn their annual conferences into lavish affairs featuring high-quality gifts for attendees and concerts by big-name rock stars. But lately an unplanned giveaway has stolen some headlines: the flu.
Sun Microsystems is getting ready to talk about its cloud computing efforts, including some kind of a deal with Amazon for its Amazon Web Services, according to CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who delivered a short keynote at Startup Camp in San Francisco. Startup Camp is an adjunct event to the JavaOne Conference that kicks off later this week.
Following his keynote, I got onstage with Schwartz and asked him a few questions. I queried him about Sun and its cloud computing efforts, given that it was nearly a decade ago that then-Sun CEO Scott McNealy started talking about how “the network is the computer.” In response, Schwartz said they have some interesting news coming out later this week. He refused to give the details, but he seemed pretty excited.
Companies used to give away pens, squishy balls and coffee cups to worm their ways into the hearts of customers. Now, they pass out database software. That is, in a sense, Sun Microsystems’ strategy with its $1 billion purchase of MySQL, said Sun CFO Mike Lehman at Sun’s Global Media Summit here today. Very few [...]
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