1,500 jobs culled as Sun Microsystems continues restructuring

by Stevie Smith - Apr 1 2009, 15:45

Impacting technology businesses across the board, regardless of size or reputation, the current economic crunch has once again reared up and claimed a considerable amount of jobs from one of the industry’s leading players.

Specifically, Sun Microsystems, creator of Java and Open Office, has announced that it is to cull some 1,500 employees worldwide at “all functions, geographies and levels,” which will not exempt those in executive positions such as vice president or director.

Notifications will be dispatched to the unlucky 1,500 employees before the end of the week, Sun explained, adding that it will continue to provide updates on its progress against the workforce reduction plan as and when they become available.

This latest round of job cuts at the Santa Clara-based technology heavyweight comes as part of a considerable restructuring plan first unveiled back in November of 2008.

According to Sun, the restructuring will enable the company to “align its cost model with the global economic climate and accelerate the introduction of compelling open source innovations.”

The plan involves culling some 18 percent of Sun’s total worldwide workforce, which equates to approximately 6,000 positions. An initial round of terminations carried out in January saw 1,300 of those jobs fall. 

In related news, shares of Sun Microsystems increased in value on Tuesday following rumours of advanced acquisition/merger talks that could see Sun snapped up in the near future by IBM (International Business Machines).

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