Sun Micro Lowers Outlook For Its Fiscal Fourth Quarter
A WSJ.COM News Roundup
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems Inc. said Tuesday that fiscal
fourth-quarter revenue and earnings would be slightly below its previous
outlook.
The computer maker now expects revenue for
the quarter ending June 30 to be between
$3.8 billion and $4 billion. It predicts earnings,
excluding one-time items, between two cents
and four cents a share. Analysts surveyed by
Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting
Sun to earn six cents a share in the quarter.
Back in April, Sun reported fiscal third-quarter earnings, excluding items,
of $263 million, or eight cents a share, on revenue of $4.1 billion. At the
time, Sun Chief Financial Officer Michael Lehman said Sun's revenue
should rise slightly in the current fourth quarter from the third quarter.
Per-share income would be either flat or slightly down, he said.
With quarterly growth rates that at one point rose to 60%, Sun had started
to pull well ahead of its main competitors in the server market. But like
Cisco Systems Inc., however, Sun has been heavily dependent on
now-slumping telecommunications companies and to a lesser extent on
smaller dot-coms, many of which have fallen on hard times. Not only have
those trends crimped current sales, but the collapse of many dot-coms also
has fueled a sizable market for second-hand Sun equipment. |
