Sun (JAVA): The Worst Tech Stock In The World Makes Its Case Again

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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95129cThere has been some debate recently about which of the well-known tech stocks is the worst. AMD (AMD) is often in the running. So is Palm (PALM).

Sun (JAVA) won the race today with spectacularly poor numbers for the last quarter.

First Call had estimates of ($.08) EPS and $3.06 billion in revenue. Sun was not even close.

Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 were $2.990 billion, a decrease of 7.1% as compared with $3.219 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2008. Total gross margin as a percent of revenues was 40.2, a decrease of 8.3%, as compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2008.

Net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 on a GAAP basis was $1.677 billion, or ($2.24) per share on a diluted basis, as compared with a net income of $89 million, or $.10 per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2008. GAAP net loss per share includes a $1.445 billion non-cash charge for goodwill impairment.

On a non-GAAP basis, net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 was $65 million, or ($0.09) per share on a diluted basis, as compared with a non-GAAP net income of $285 million, or $.32 per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2008.

The company whined and gave excuses along with saying how bright the future was. That is the stock and trade of Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz who keeps his job by way of some unknown miracle. His comment: "We believe Sun is well positioned to weather the downturn and ultimately become the biggest beneficiary in the open source revolution in both systems and software."

Jonathan, there is no way in hell you will be around to see that day. It isn’t coming.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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