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Sun investors OK 1-for-4 reverse split
2007-11-08
Sun Microsystems Inc. shareholders approved a 1-for-4 reverse stock split Thursday, an essentially cosmetic maneuver by the server and software maker that is intended to remove the stigma of its slumping stock price. Investors in the Santa Clara-based company on Monday will receive one new share for every four shares they own. Approved at Sun's annual shareholder meeting, the move is not expected to affect its total market value, which stood at $18 billion Thursday. Sun hopes the split will help it overcome negative perceptions among potential customers about its stock price, which has been stuck under $10 since 2002. Sun shares were down 3 cents at $5.19 Thursday. A dot-com-era darling, the company was hit hard by the meltdown and lost more than $5 billion before turning the corner last year, when it posted a profit of $473 million in its first profitable year since 2001. Some of the prosperity can be traced to a wide-ranging restructuring launched by Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz shortly after he took the reins from co-founder Scott McNealy in 2006. The company eliminated about 4,000 jobs through layoffs and attrition and revealed Thursday in a regulatory filing that 600 additional workers were notified in the latest quarter that they would be laid off as part of additional restructuring announced in August. Sun finished the quarter with 33,904 employees.
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