Consolidation is under way at Santa Clara-based Sun Microsystems. The computer server manufacturer announced May 31 that it is closing its leased facilities in Sunnyvale and cutting 4,000 to 5,000 jobs — 11 to 13 percent — from its worldwide workforce of 37,500.
The layoffs are expected to reduce costs by $480 million to $590 million.
The move is the latest in a series of news-making steps for Sun, which has lost money for the past three years, according to national media reports. In early May, the company announced it was selling its East Bay complex in Newark and relocating about 2,300 employees to offices on the west side of the Bay, including in Menlo Park.
In April, Sun founder and Portola Valley resident Scott McNealy handed off the reins of chief executive officer to company president Jonathan Schwartz. Mr. McNealy kept his seat as chairman of the board of directors.
The company is reinventing itself from a position of strength, said Mr. Schwartz in a statement. Sun’s revenues are up compared with the third quarter last year, the company has $4.4 billion in cash, and it has strong relationships with “virtually every Fortune 1000 company,” he said.
“We’ve worked hard to reinvent the entirety of Sun’s product line, from software to systems, storage and services,” he said. “It’s on that rebuilt foundation that we are reinventing our business model on a far simpler base and focusing our energies on the automation, energy efficiency and network innovation at the heart of our technology leadership.”
