Sun Slashes 5,000 Jobs, 950 in U.S.

After boasting fiscal fourth-quarter revenue gains the week prior, Sun Microsystems laid off approximately 5,000 workers in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia Aug. 4 as part of an ongoing plan to improve profits.

The job cuts, affecting 950 employees in the United States and 300 in Colorado alone, were across all levels, including vice presidents and directors, according to reports.

Suns plan to cut 13 percent of its work force, or 5,000 jobs, was announced May 31. It was the first big move by new CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who took over for co-founder and longtime CEO Scott McNealy in May.

Schwartz said his first task was to complete a full review of the Santa Clara, Calif., companys operations and make moves to bring Sun back to financial health.

Officials expect the layoffs to save the company between $480 million and $590 million annually, with profits expected to improve as a result by July 2007.

Sun continued its top-down reorganization in late July by naming a new vice president of storage marketing and business operations and reconfiguring the groups storage division in an effort to further align the group with other divisions.

Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis on servers, switches and networking protocols for the enterprise and small businesses.