Sun Sacks 1,500
by John Paczkowski
Posted on March 30, 2009 at 2:22 PM PT
“We are preconfigured for the downturn.”
– Sun CEO Jon Schwartz, Oct. 13, 2008
Looks like Sun is “aligning its business with the global economic climate” again… The company will sack 1,500 employees this week, a company spokesperson confirmed to Digital Daily. The move is part of the restructuring plan Sun announced last November and will affect “all functions, geographies and levels.”
In January, Sun confirmed that it had laid off 1,300 employees as part of its November plan to cut 18 percent of its workforce. With this latest round of cuts, that number is pushing toward 3,000.
News of cuts comes as acquisition talks between IBM (IBM) and Sun (JAVA) continue, suggesting perhaps that IBM prefers its acquisition targets lean…
Sun’s statement on the matter in full:
Sun continues to make important choices to streamline operations and align resources to best address market opportunity and position the company for improved financial performance and long term growth. In November 2008, Sun announced a series of changes designed to align its cost model with the global economy and accelerate the introduction of compelling open source innovations. As part of that effort Sun announced a global workforce reduction of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 employees, representing approximately 15% to 18% of the Company’s global workforce. In January, layoff notifications were given to approximately 1,300 employees as part of that action.
This week, Sun can confirm that notifications are being given to approximately 1,500 as part of this effort. Reductions are being made across all levels, including vice presidents and directors. Sun remains committed to its strategy with a consistent focus on providing innovations that enable customers to address their business needs. We continue to see great opportunities for our technologies globally and are focused on our customers and partners.
We will continue to provide updates on our progress against the workforce reduction plan as they come available.
