Sun Microsystems has axed staff in its software group,
according to reports, with some estimates saying up to 4% of the
total head count in the division have gone.
The job losses, which could total up to 100, are in the UK,
Ireland, Canada and the US, say the reports.
Sun declined to comment on the reports of job cuts. However, in
a statement it said, "Sun is continuously driving cost structure
improvements by taking actions to resize the company for growth,
better align our cost structure to our revenues and position the
company to achieve its financial goals in financial year 2005."
The reports of job cuts are the latest coming on top of an ever
increasing redundancy programme at Sun. Last year the company
announced 3,000 would go in response to falling sales.
The figure rose to 3,500 by the turn of the year and has now
risen to around 3,600.
Last year there were redundancies in Sun’s server business in
both the UK and Ireland.
Sun’s cost-cutting programme, in response to an increasingly
competitive market, has also been adopted by other hardware
suppliers.
HP made hundreds of job cuts towards the end of last year, and
after its recent financial results declared it would wield the axe
further.