Sun cutting 3,000 jobs

October 21, 2009 01:11:14 PM

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Sun Microsystems said Tuesday it is cutting 3,000 jobs over the next 12 months because of its delayed takeover by US business software giant Oracle.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Sun said the layoffs were part of a restructuring plan brought about by the hold on its 7.4-billion-dollar purchase by Oracle.

"In light of the delay in the closing of the acquisition of the company," Sun said its board of directors had approved the job cuts "to better align the company's resources with its strategic business objectives."

The Santa Clara, California-based Sun, which employs more than 33,500 people worldwide, said the move will result in charges of between 75 million dollars and 125 million dollars over the next several quarters.

Oracle's purchase of Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star and developer of the popular Java programming language, was approved by Sun shareholders in July and the US Department of Justice in August.

But it is now on hold pending approval by European regulators. A decision is due by January 19, 2010.

Sun is also the fourth-largest maker of computer servers but has been steadily losing market share to IBM as well as Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

IBM also made a bid to acquire Sun but was edged out by Oracle.

Oracle develops, manufactures and distributes company software, and is the market leader in proprietary databases -- big beasts for large-scale management of businesses' commercial information.

Oracle, IBM and Microsoft together control about 85 percent of the database market in terms of revenue, according to the European Union.