Sun Microsystems takes two steps forward, three steps back.
Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA, Bullboard) is one of the great large-cap tech failures of the last five years. The company was a leader in the server business in 2000. Under founder Scott McNealy the company floundered for several years. Two years ago, McNealy was replaced by Jonathan Schwartz who has a pony tail and writes a blog. Those were the only things that recommended him for being a hardware company CEO.
The initial reaction to new management was good. Sun took two steps. The first was major workforce cuts that brought the company back to a profit. The other was several acquisitions to increase revenue in related businesses. The most notable was SeeBeyond. It turns out Sun has very little to show for the M&A work. Revenue growth has been flat for over a year. The stock has moved from almost $27 in January 2007 to under $13.
Sun released earnings two weeks ago. There was no movement on revenue and the company only managed to break even on an EPS basis. The firm announced more lay-offs and said that it did not expect improvements in sales as the year went on.
Sun is becoming an attractive takeover target for a big server provider. This could include IBM (NYSE: IBM, Bullboard), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ, Bullboard), or even Dell (NASDAQ: DELL, Bullboard). With a market cap of under $10 billion, the company trades for less than one times sales. A larger firm could pull out a lot of Sun's costs, and hope to keep all or most of the revenue.
The play on Sun is to hope for a buyout.