Comments on: The best decision Scott McNealy ever made

Since turning over the reins to Jonathan Schwartz in April 2006, Sun has picked itself off the floor, staging one of the more improbable corporate comebacks in recent Silicon Valley history.

[Hernys]

What are you talking about?

They are barely into red, and mostly due to layoffs and money influx from lawsuits with Microsoft. Almost all businesses are losing money, most have not even a revenue model. They have no customers for "the grid", OSS solaris and OO left them without a sustainable software business, Java is out of their control and was never profitable to begin with and they keep investing in businesses with no monetary value!
If it is about doing cool things, you might have a point. But as a business, they are heading down faster than ever.

[pokiri]

Sun's demise predicted long ago

But it is not going away . Getting stronger under Jonathan. Initial results do appear due to cost cutting.

[dmackdaddy]

Are you kidding me?

How do you figure that SUN, oh wait - JAVA has picked itself up!? The stock was at 5.00 for ever and then with a 4X reverse split hit 20.00 and now its at a weak 15!!! They need to do more than buy MySQL to turn this stock back to 40.00 which would be 10.00 pre split. That won't happen even if they start using the work Virtualization more!

[4Taveren]

No, he's not kidding

Look beyond the stock performance. Wall Street has had a tough time understanding Sun (and admittedly, Sun has had a tough time articulating their strategy to the Street ever since the exit of Ed Zander.)

This is a Fourtune 200 company with a $14B run rate. They have shown growth over the last few years (up 7% this Q compared to same Q last year).

More than that, Sun has vision and continues to fund the R&D and deliver the technologies that will enable the future of computing (think Web 3.0).

[Len Bullard]

Patience and Steely Nerves

Sun is the experiment to watch. They kept good talent, dabbled in projects to keep their skills sharp, stayed out of markets where they had no real expertise, and opened the company conversation to customers and lurkers alike.

It is a slow slog out of the stock basement. I've worked for a company that did that. I also watched it eat its own young to push the stock price up for the fire sale.

No, the danger here is the locust investors who decide that the price is too low and begin to muscle the management to squeeze out a higher stock price by committing the company to risky projects that get high visibility and lucrative contracts but where the realized revenue is too far in the future. Big gaps open up, a company has to buy its way out, and all of the effort goes into paying the mortgage.

So far, Sun has avoided that fate which is all too common in the post-hype hedge fund fallout period. If JS keeps to the strategy he has been so open about so far, Sun will rise.

Patience and steely nerves are everything.

[Yhildreth]

Typing too fast

This is either a college buddy of Mr. S. or someone who is fighting a press deadline and didn't get a chance to do any real research. Our friends at Sun keep bringing knives to the gunfight and getting beaten over and over by their "co-opetition". True, Sun has provided some great innovations in technology, but they keep trying to innovate in business without working out the real model. The current excursion from red to black is fueled by non-reapeatable activities (layoffs, attrition, starvation). The market knows that and rewards their stock price accordingly.

They need to really clean house, get some adults in to supervise the business portion, and then the technical excellence will have some relevance.
..or go private ...or get absorbed.

But this is just one opinion of a former stockholder.

[dmackdaddy]

JAVA @ 16 now...

JAVA @ 16 now...