Sun to lay off 1,000 staff

Sun Microsystems Inc. expects to lay off around 1,000 staff at a cost of about US$100 million as part of the company's ongoing cost-cutting strategy, according to Sun's chief financial officer.

Sun Chief Financial Officer Steve McGowan announced the layoffs during a Tuesday afternoon conference call on the company's fourth-quarter fiscal results. Sun took $44 million of the $100 million layoff charge in its fourth quarter and expects to account for the remaining $56 million "over the course of the next four quarters," McGowan said on the call.

There was no word from Sun where in its operations the job cuts ax is likely to fall.

Sun last announced significant job cuts in April 2004, when it begun to lay off 3,300 staff. The company later boosted that job cut number to 3,500 in October of last year.

Another way Sun hopes to cut costs is by reducing its property portfolio capacity, incurring a likely charge of around $180 million over the next several quarters, according to McGowan.