Tuesday February 10, 2009
Sun shining bright
SUN Microsystems may be one of the most recognisable names in the IT industry but in today’s economy even the biggest companies do not seem immune to the downturn.
It was therefore expected that even Sun would be posting its growth report in negative figures.
In actuality, however, Sun announced it achieved its revenue forecast for its second quarter for its fiscal year 2009 which began in the summer of 2008.
With a 7.7% increase in revenue over its first quarter earnings, this was 3% above analyst’s consensus expectations, according to managing director for Sun Microsystems Malaysia C.P. Loo.
“We are happy to be in the strong financial position we are in. We believe that a large part of our success is because people are seeing the benefits our the open-source software we provide,” Loo said.
The company believes it has contributed to breaking the stigma against open-source software, said marketing direction for Sun Microsystem’s Asia South region Chong Soon Cheong.
“Many of our customers see the benefits of open-source software. Facebook, arguably the most popular social networking site, is currently using our MySQL database,” said Chong.
Loo went on to say that Sun is cautiously optimistic in terms of its future prospects.
“We have about US$3bil (RM10.8bil) in cash and marketable securities right now that we hope will help us weather the storm,” said Loo.
“We feel that we have a good range of products and we will continue to work so we can improve ourselves.” — STEFAN NAIDU
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