“After more than two decades at the helm, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy is stepping aside and leaving the top job to the company’s current No. 2. Sun shares rallied late Monday on the news, which also included an announcement that Sun’s third-quarter revenue grew by 21 percent. But McNealy critics, who say the 51 year-old co-founder has been slow to cut costs and make other painful changes, shouldn’t count on him ceding control, one observer said,” Dan Goodin reports for The Associated Press. “Sun President Jonathan Schwartz will keep that post as he becomes chief executive. McNealy will remain chairman and a full-time employee of Santa Clara-based company.”
“McNealy, the often outspoken co-founder of Sun Microsystems Inc. and one of Microsoft Corp.’s most vocal critics, announced his decision as the pioneering maker of computer servers reported a wider quarterly loss,” Goodin reports. “Sun’s shares surged nearly 9 percent after the announcement of McNealy’s exit and the $217 million loss that met Wall Street expectations. McNealy was under increasing criticism from analysts and former executives, who said he wasn’t doing enough to restore the company to its more profitable days.”
“McNealy co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982, developing it into a scrappy Silicon Valley startup whose high-powered computers, called workstations, became a major staple with engineers and businesses. In 1996, after Microsoft products began encroaching on Sun’s territory, McNealy reinvented the company as a maker of servers, which performed the same tasks as mainframe computers for a fraction of the cost,” Goodin reports. “Schwartz, 40, joined Sun in 1996 with its acquisition of Lighthouse Design Ltd., a 35-employee outfit he founded to make software for Steve Jobs’s NeXT computer. Named president and chief operating officer in 2004, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from Wesleyan University in 1987.”
“Schwartz said he had no immediate plans to change Sun’s strategy, although he declined to say if he planned further job cuts or other restructuring. Sun has about 38,000 employees,” Goodin reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And now for a medley of McNealy’s greatest hits:
• “Probably the most dangerous and powerful industrialist of our age.” [Referring to Bill Gates]
• “When Steve Ballmer calls me wacko, I consider that a compliment.”
• “The only thing that I’d rather own than Windows is English, because then I could charge you two hundred and forty-nine dollars for the right to speak it.”
• “Try moving off [Windows] NT easily. You can move from Solaris to HP/UX to AIX or DEC easily relative to moving off of NT, which is like a Roach Motel. Once you check in, you never check out.”
• “Microsoft is now talking about the digital nervous system. I guess I would be nervous if my system was built on their technology, too.”
• “Instead of plug and play – in the Microsoft world you plug it in and play around with it for a few weeks…”
• “Ballmer and Butthead.” [Ballmer & Gates]
• “A giant hair ball.” [Microsoft’s Windows and Windows NT]
• “Windows More Errors” [Windows ME]
• “Look Out” [Microsoft’s Outlook]
• “Every time you turn on your new car, you’re turning on 20 microprocessors. Every time you use an ATM, you’re using a computer. Every time I use a settop box or game machine, I’m using a computer. The only computer you don’t know how to work is your Microsoft computer, right?”
Advertisements:
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
Related articles:
Snapple? Bill Joy: Sun and Apple almost merged three times – January 12, 2006
Sunset for Sun Microsystems? – April 29, 2004
Microsoft and Sun enter into ‘unholy alliance’ aginst IBM, Linux – April 02, 2004
Sun VP of Software: practically every Sun employee owns an Apple desktop at home – August 06, 2003
What will become of sun now?
Those are awesome quotes.
“When Steve Ballmer calls me wacko, I consider that a compliment.”
So would I! The one TRUE whacko in the U.S. (Politicians excluded) is Steve Ballmer, now Michael Jackson no longer lives there.
If Apple ever wants to be a serious player in business, buying Sun is their automatic ticket in!
If Apple ever wants to be a serious player in business, buying Sun is their automatic ticket in!
If Apple ever wants to be a serious player in business, buying Sun is their automatic ticket in!
If Apple ever wants to be a serious player in business, buying Sun is their automatic ticket in!
NT is like “Roach Motel. Once you check in, you never check out.”
– that’s great!
That pretty much hits the whole Microsoft suite right on the head.
[Hey MDN— the only thing I hate about your new popup ads is that I can’t close them with a mouse click – I have to wait for them to close – that irritates me no end]
You forgot Microsoft .NOT err .NET
“Every time you turn on your new car, you’re turning on 20 microprocessors. Every time you use an ATM, you’re using a computer. Every time I use a settop box or game machine, I’m using a computer. The only computer you don’t know how to work is your Microsoft computer, right?”
– Great quote, really great quote.
Thanks, MDN!!
“If Apple ever wants to be a serious player in business, buying Sun is their automatic ticket in”!
I have said that all long…well just over three years. altough sun has not been the company it use to be, they still have nice size market. Most important the have some valuable intellectual property…Java!
Question is how much is Sun worth?
sheesh, y’all missed the best one:
In response to Hp, Compaq, Dell focusing on IntDows Pee Cees, i.e. being a delivery boy for Mafiasoft:
They’ve left the computer business – they’re a reseller now, like a grocery store. As far as value add is concerned they stay away from that since they know the only value you add to a banana is a bruise.
My favorite quote:
“Windows More Errors” [Windows ME]
“Those are awesome quotes”
Yeah – but guess who threw in the towel first.
[snicker]
And in the 90’s Sun was going to buy Apple under
Gil’s reign.
How times have changed