Sun reorganizes hardware group; two execs out

IDG News Service - Sun Microsystems Inc. yesterday announced a reorganization of its hardware divisions, as well as the departure of two senior executives.
The reorganization comes just two weeks after Jonathan Schwartz was appointed chief operating officer and president on April 2.
The company said Mark Tolliver, chief marketing and strategy officer, and Neil Knox, executive vice president of volume systems products, will leave the company to pursue other interests.
Weighed down by a hefty restructuring charge as revenue fell for the 12th consecutive quarter, the company yesterday also posted a $760 million loss that was in line with its reduced forecast. Sun's revenue for the quarter was $2.65 billion, down 5% from the $2.79 billion it reported in the same quarter a year ago (see story).
Effective immediately, the company's microprocessor and UltraSparc-based systems groups will be combined into a new Throughput Systems organization, which will be led by David Yen, who previously led the company's processor division (see story).
A new Network Systems division, headed on an interim basis by the former chief technology officer of Sun's software group, John Fowler, will be responsible for the company's systems based on x86 processors from Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Sun is conducting "internal and external searches" for a permanent head of this division, a company spokeswoman said.
Anil Gadre, Sun's former vice president of software marketing, will replace Tolliver as the company's chief marketing and strategy officer, Sun said, and Brian Sutphin will be vice president of corporate development.
Both executives, as well as Yen and Fowler, will report to Schwartz, who now oversees an executive team that also includes the heads of Sun's storage, software, services and sales divisions.
Sun Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy downplayed the effect of the management changes. "The management change of putting Jonathan in as COO is not entirely disruptive," he said during a conference call yesterday. "Very, very few people have a new boss. That's what really drives disruption."
However, one industry analyst who follows Sun said the changes within the company appeared to be significant and, combined with Sun's April 2 settlement with Microsoft Corp., are signs of a company in the midst of a major reinvention. "This has occurred very rapidly and is [of] a very large scope," Illuminata Inc. principal analyst Jonathan Eunice said of Sun's organizational changes.
"To me, this and the Microsoft deal are the results of the 'We know we're going to have to do things differently around here' observation," he said.
During the next quarter, Sun will

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