Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

Sun's Trading Symbol Going From SUNW To JAVA

Posted by CowboyNeal on Fri Aug 24, 2007 06:27 AM
from the big-whoop dept.
Sun Microsystems Businesses Java Programming
Mortimer.CA writes "Straight from Jonathan Schwartz's weblog, Sun is changing their ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA: 'JAVA is a technology whose value is near infinite to the internet, and a brand that's inseparably a part of Sun (and our profitability). [...] To be very clear, this isn't about changing the company name or focus — we are Sun, we are a systems company, and we will always be a derivative of the students that created us, Stanford University Network is here to stay. But we are no longer simply a workstation company, nor a company whose products can be limited by one category — and Java does a better job of capturing exactly that sentiment than any other four letter symbol.'"
+ -
story

Related Stories

Submission: Sun's Trading Symbol Going from SUNW to JAVA by Anonymous Coward
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Sun's Trading Symbol Going From SUNW To JAVA 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.
  • Hmm... while many programmers are powered by java, all life on Earth is powered at least indirectly by the Sun.

  • Uhm. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by John_Booty (149925) <johnbooty@@@bootyproject...org> on Friday August 24 2007, @06:33AM (#20341963) Homepage

    "we are [not] a company whose products can be limited by one category"


    So instead of naming themselves after one product category, they're naming themselves after another. Great! The name change makes some sense (who really wants the outdated "workstation" thing attached to their name?) but marketingspeak is just so silly sometimes.

    Can't help but think they'll want to do this gain once Java is no longer their flagship product. If they're still around (and I hope they are!)

    • Re:Uhm. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by MMC Monster (602931) on Friday August 24 2007, @06:38AM (#20341991)
      Actually, I was under the impression that SUNW was a more respectable name. Workstation gives the suggestion of serious computer power.

      • Re:Uhm. (Score:4, Informative)

        by peterprior (319967) on Friday August 24 2007, @06:47AM (#20342075)
        Actually it stands for Standford University NetWorks... :)

      • Re:Uhm. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by John_Booty (149925) <johnbooty@@@bootyproject...org> on Friday August 24 2007, @06:59AM (#20342153) Homepage
        For customers, maybe, but not for investors - and they're the ones that will see the ticker symbol. The workstation market is near-nonexistent. "Workstations" harken to the days of $10,000 desktop computers like the NeXT Cube and the like. Former workstation companies like SGI have collapsed financially and are scrambling to try and find other ways to make money.
        • I had periodically wondered what the W stood for but had never connected it with "workstation", and doubt if many investors had. (Anyway, other posters are claiming plausibly that the link to "workstation" isn't even correct.)

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by PhunkySchtuff (208108)
            SUNW (The stock ticker symbol) = Stanford University Network Workstation.

            Sun (the company) = Sun Microsystems.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ednopantz (467288)
      This is the platform company that spent the 1990s evangelizing a language that makes it easy to write platform independent code.

      Java may be nice, but it was a butt-stupid move for a company that made its money in OSes and hardware.
  • In related news, Steve Balmer was spotted replacing his previous 'ZUNE4ME' vanity plates with a fresh set which sports the slogan 'JAVAL0L'..

    Seriously though, I don't think Java is a particularly big reason for people to like Sun, and tying your company's future to it seems ill-advised.

  • It's only the stock ticker (Score:5, Insightful)

    by stony3k (709718) <stony3k AT gmail DOT com> on Friday August 24 2007, @06:36AM (#20341981) Homepage
    While I agree that this sounds silly, do remember that it's just the stock symbol. There are many companies with silly stock symbols (GLW, T, F). I guess they feel that more people will buy their stocks if the name sounds familiar.

    Basically, nothing to see here.
  • on SUN with this because it's hard to predict how the market is going to react. I really don't think that it's going to make all that much difference since it's still the same company and all the same assets that they had before now. Still though with all the things coming out SUN what with all the GPL software and the deal with IBM I think that things are starting to look a little brighter. Also is it just me or does it seem like with the IBM deal that SUN is wanting to get deeper entrenched in the soft

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by stevesliva (648202)

      Also is it just me or does it seem like with the IBM deal that SUN is wanting to get deeper entrenched in the software business IBM wants to start to get out of it?
      It's just you. IBM is the second-largest software company in the world, and software mints money.
  • Who trades under "SUN"?

    Ok, I did Google it, and I guess it's "Sunoco." I guess I could've seen that one coming.

    (Totally off-subject, but I'm finding that Google should be responsible for a significant decrease in general ignorance: whenever someone wonders some basic question, the answer is usually a few keywords away. This hasn't happened yet for some reason.)
    • Sun couldn't (easily) use SUN as their symbol even if it was available. They're listed with NASDAQ and all NASDAQ symbols are 4 characters long (sometimes 5 - the 5th is used as an indicator that there's something unusual about the security). Other examples are MSFT and AAPL (and, for a little while longer SCOX).

      Symbols on the other US exchanges are all 3 letters or less. SUN (Sunoco) is listed on the NYSE, as is IBM and T (AT&T). Interestingly enough, the symbol "M" wasn't in use on the NYSE for a

  • Packages (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HaydnH (877214) on Friday August 24 2007, @06:41AM (#20342021)
    As all of the Solaris packages start with the companies ticker, will all future Sun packages now be called JAVAxxxxx? That's going to annoy the hell out of us sys admins =/ Haydn.
  • Look out for BSOD on a stock ticker near you. Unless you are running a real operating system, that is.

  • But we are no longer simply a workstation company, nor a company whose products can be limited by one category -- and Java does a better job of capturing exactly that sentiment than any other four letter symbol.
    I can think of some four letter symbols that express the sentiment a bit better...
  • The quote was truncated. Here it is in its totality:

    "But we are no longer simply a workstation company, nor a company whose products can be limited by one category -- and Java does a better job of capturing exactly that sentiment than any other four letter symbol.

    Our first choice was the even more accurate DEAD, but that symbol was already taken by Emerson Burial Caskets."

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by dwarfking (95773)

        Java is not dead or dying, regardless what many on /. like to say. There are basically two primary platforms now for custom in-house business development: Java and .NET.

        Businesses that are predominately Windows based (desktops, servers, SQL Server, etc) find the holistic approach of .NET and the Visual Studio tool suite (which is a decent development environment) to be the best model for them. Businesses that are more heterogeneous tend to use Java more. You are likely to find very few businesses trusti


  • Other companies have used their chief product as thier ticker symbol. Anheuser-Busch, for example, has a ticker symbol of BUD.

    But in reading TFA, I can't help but feel like I'm being beat over the head with a marketing stick.

    I mean, come on now... "a technology whose value is near infinite to the internet"???

    Give me a break... I work in a .NET shop. Guess how much JAVA we use. Guess how important it is in our apps.

    • Give me a break... I work in a .NET shop. Guess how much JAVA we use. Guess how important it is in our apps.
      Mmmmm. It shows you Microsoft's .NET strategy 5 years before they know themselves?

       
  • Wouldn't JAVA make more sense as Starbucks' stock symbol? I liked SUNW. I have fond memories about learning to program on SUN and HP workstations. HP has already mostly phased out their UNIX workstation line, and this seems to be (potentially) a first tentative step for SUN to become more like IBM and move away from hardware as their bread and butter.

    I write this from a SUN Linux box, so I certainly hope this isn't the case.
  • JAVA is a technology whose value is near infinite to the internet

    What on Earth is this idiot talking about?

    TWW

  • Perhaps they're trying to increase share price... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2007, @07:26AM (#20342333)
    ...because in my experience, Java increases the size of things by at least 25%.

  • Unfathomable. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MythMoth (73648) on Friday August 24 2007, @07:29AM (#20342367) Homepage
    I'm a developer who uses Java almost exclusively these days. I enjoy working with the language, and I think it's the cat's PJs when putting together big enterprise sites. And I think this move is... stupid. BUT I'm a developer, so I know nothing of the mystical ways of marketing. It might all be BS or there might be something in it; I don't really care all that much.

    However, I do take substantial issue with one thing that Schwartz said, which I think is pretty badly thought out:

    As for working professionals, I had dinner with a financial analyst a few months ago who said he saw the Java launch experience "a few times a day" when accessing intranet applications - as did tens of thousands of his fellow employees.
    He's basically saying: "We shove a splash screen in users faces every day". This is a Bad Thing! He's making users associate Java with applications that have poor performance - by definition if they're seeing this they're not getting to the application they want to work on as quickly as they should. The poor performance (web server performance) is out of their hands, but it's in their control to prevent the association with their brand!

    I have high regards for Sun employees in general. Their management, however, I have my doubts about.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by cmat (152027)
      Ya know, something I've always found bizarre about this "everyone thinks java has poor loading times" comment... most everyone that uses a computer and is not a programmer seems to look at the slow loading of any app as a "problem with my computer, hang on a sec, it's just loading now". So most of the time I would argue that the average user of such applications care more about overall performance slowdowns and almost never associate the real causes of slowdown to any particular factor.

  • Should APPL become IPOD? Silliness. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dpbsmith (263124) on Friday August 24 2007, @07:33AM (#20342389) Homepage
    GE does a lot of things besides manufacture light bulbs and generators. In fact they do a lot of things besides manufacturing light bulbs, generators, medical equipment, jet engines, finance, plastics, and railroad locomotives. Yet they feel no need to change their trading symbol.

    Does anyone think that it would help Apple to change its trading symbol from APPL to IPOD?

    Does AT&T worry that people will think telegraphs are old-fashioned?

    GE, Apple, and AT&T are just names. For better or worse, people know what these companies are, not because of the names, but because of the companies. And the trading symbol is one step further removed.

    SUN is an acronym for Stanford University Network. It should be a proud part of the company's heritage.

    Wanting to fiddle with the trading symbol is a sure sign of a company that has no idea of what its identity is or what it is or should be doing. It also indicates an unhealthy focus on the stock, rather than company's business itself.

  • Wait a sec.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Churla (936633) on Friday August 24 2007, @08:01AM (#20342619)
    So they don't want to just be associated with workstations, so they change their symbol to the name of one particular software product they produce. I boggle at this.

    Why not change the symbol to something like SunS (Sun Systems, oops taken), or SunT (...technologies) , or Sunn (...networking, but also taken...)

    You get the idea. Keep the identity they have as Sun, because that does carry recognition. Far more than I think they think Java does. It would be like MS changing their ticker to WNDZ or the federal government getting the ticker symbol DCMA...

  • Can SCO change theirs? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jason Levine (196982) on Friday August 24 2007, @08:03AM (#20342649) Homepage
    If so, I have some suggestions:

    TOAST
    KAPUT
    DEAD
    MLTDN
    NOCSE
    PWNED <---- I hated to put that last one in there, but after the way the judge ruled against them and given their current situation, I think it applies nicely.

  • Well JAVA did make a pile of money ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by supersnail (106701) on Friday August 24 2007, @09:14AM (#20343425)
    ... only trouble is it made it for IBM not sun!

    IBM seem to be the only company capable of actually selling java based product.
    But then again they persuaded people to part with ready cash for Lotus Notes
    so it doesnt really say much about Java.

    I think SUN is desperate not to be seen a a hardware manufacturer becuase
    of its associantion with commodity products and declining profitability.

    However the only way to become a succesful software business is to SELL
    software to customers, which, SUN does not do at all well.
     

  • New Slogan? (Score:3, Funny)

    by pragma_x (644215) on Friday August 24 2007, @10:12AM (#20344111) Journal
    Java: Brand Once, Market Everywhere.
    • Now let the flame war begin.

      What's to flame? When you're right, you're right.

      -jcr

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Teckla (630646)

      Java was doomed, from the first time anyone ever had to ask the question "which Java?"

      The most popular programming language [tiobe.com] on the planet is doomed?

      It failed on the "write-once, run anywhere" promise

      You mean, the Java programs I write that run on Linux, BSD, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Windows, and AS/400 aren't actually working? You should have told me sooner! Maybe you can tell me how, exactly, they're not working, because they seem to be working fine!

      it failed on the security promise

      Because we hear about buffer overflow exploits in Java programs leaving your machine vulnerable all the time? Oh, wait. We almost never hear about those.

      and it failed on the "finally, you'll be free of win32" promise

      That's funny, it freed me from t

        • Funny how if you replace the original poster's user id from Teckla to mattgreen, you'd be arguing against yourself right now.

          What's your point?

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.