After Sun goes out (NewsForge)

Yes, they do have $5 billion in cash. As such, you can assume that some proportion of the current value of their stock (current $3 or so) is directly linked to investor's valuation of that cash pile. Purely for the sake of discussion, let's say that $1 or $1.50 of the current value is linked to the cash reserves. Now, consider from an investor's point of view the implications of additional quarters like the last three at Sun; basically, the value of the cash reserves is being pissed away at frightening rate. Sun has a very large workforce, operations, and research efforts to support; at the current rate of losses, their postion is untenable, even in the short-medim term. This is a doomsday scenario, but it is also the current reality, and will produce continued declines in Sun's stock as realization spreads. I expect investors to make some kind of forceful effort soon to get Sun to articulate a new strategy, at the very least for protecting those cash reserves. With no voices inside Sun or on the board to challenge McNealy, however, such an effort is likely to fail.

Peter Yellman