Comment Re:Read it here first (Score 1) 671
They have just over 5.7 BILLION dollars in various securities and are close to breaking even.
Not anymore, they don't. Check the Feb '04 Q4. Its down to $5.161B as reported for Dec 28, 03. That's a reduction in net cash assets of $580m since the value you reported ($5.741B) which was for Jun '03 (you did read it the right way round, I presume?).
Anyway, the size of their cash balance is irrelevant here. What you need to look at is Sun's declining revenue from hardware sales which was down 9% over the last half of '03 compared to the last half of '03. If that trend continues, they will need to show the market some real increases in income this year in order to lift their stock out of the toilet. if they can't do it selling hardware, they will have to sell something else and Java is the biggest something else they have right now.
The long term downward trend in sales is pretty ominous for Sun. Of course, they could just use that cash mountain for a large-scale profitiable acquisition and get out of the hardware business altogether, but that's not McNealy's style. He'd rather go down with the sinking ship than admit defeat.
Sun in '04 is starting to look a lot like DEC in the late 90's: rf
Not anymore, they don't. Check the Feb '04 Q4. Its down to $5.161B as reported for Dec 28, 03. That's a reduction in net cash assets of $580m since the value you reported ($5.741B) which was for Jun '03 (you did read it the right way round, I presume?).
Anyway, the size of their cash balance is irrelevant here. What you need to look at is Sun's declining revenue from hardware sales which was down 9% over the last half of '03 compared to the last half of '03. If that trend continues, they will need to show the market some real increases in income this year in order to lift their stock out of the toilet. if they can't do it selling hardware, they will have to sell something else and Java is the biggest something else they have right now.
The long term downward trend in sales is pretty ominous for Sun. Of course, they could just use that cash mountain for a large-scale profitiable acquisition and get out of the hardware business altogether, but that's not McNealy's style. He'd rather go down with the sinking ship than admit defeat.
Sun in '04 is starting to look a lot like DEC in the late 90's: rf
