Sun Microsystems 3Q loss stuns Wall Street

Instead, the Santa Clara-based server and software maker stunned investors Thursday by reporting a loss in its third quarter, caused in part by sagging sales to U.S. consumer-oriented companies that are putting off big-ticket spending for better times.

Sun's shares were quickly punished, dropping almost 15 percent in after-hours trading.

The company also forecast flat revenues for the fourth quarter and revealed plans to jettison between 1,500 and 2,500 jobs as it tries to snap out of a sudden financial funk.

Sun said after the market closed Thursday that it lost $34 million, or 4 cents per share, in the three months ended March 30. That's down from a profit of $67 million, or 7 cents per share, during the year-ago period.

The results for the latest quarter include costs of 4 cents per share from Sun's $1 billion acquisition of open-source software company MySQL AB, a purchase that gives Sun a foothold in the rapidly expanding market for database software for Web-based companies.

Sun also took a $52 million tax hit in the third quarter, compared with a tax benefit of $3 million in the same quarter last year.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected Sun to earn 18 cents per share.

The stock shed $2.41, or 14.8 percent, after hours, concluding at $13.93 after the results' release following the close of regular trading. It had ended up 67 cents, or 4.3 percent, at $16.33 in the regular session.

Sun's sales of $3.27 billion also came in below analysts' expectations. Wall Street was predicting Sun would have $3.38 billion in sales, a miss of more than $100 million.