Aquisition after acquisition ( Blue Cube, IPlanet, Kiva, SeeBeyond, StorageTek ) whither on the vine until all assets are completely written off. MySQL is just the next one on the list.

Their partner strategy consists of a drive by sale and leaving the partner on their own to pick the next HW platform for future projects ( often not Sun ).

Mr. McNealy is evidently going to Washington, and God save them and us. Scott McNealy made and nearly destroyed Sun Microsystems. A smart guy who often seemed to enjoy making fun of his competitors more than he did actually getting his own house….

1. Lack of Revenue Growth: Alas, Sun’s revenue had to go down — it HAD TO — before it could ever climb again. Proprietary hardware (SPARC) with proprietary software (Solaris) were doomed at some point to suffer from sharp sales declines. Offsetting those declines will take years to correct.

Again, this really was McNealy’s fault. He drove Sun off that cliff. But The VAR Guy is starting to realize Schwartz needs to move faster to monetize MySQL and other acquisitions, etc.

2. Employee Turnover: The VAR Guy isn’t aware of the “recent surveys” you mention. Nor does he have a comprehensive list of Sun staff defections. But the one thing a tech company needs is to hang onto its best talent.

3. Channel Strategy: The VAR Guy would like to see a far more aggressive channel strategy out of Sun. In Sun’s defense, The VAR Guy is an upstart blogger. So perhaps Sun hasn’t taken the appropriate time to hound him with briefings (hint, hint…).

4. Stock Price: No debate here. The stock price speaks for itself. Until earnings per share rise consistently, the stock is going nowhere. However, that’s not a buy, sell or hold recommendation. It’s just a fact: Raise earnings to raise the share price… …

So, The VAR Guy is backtracking quite a bit. Once a Schwartz proponent, our blogger is starting to wonder what it will take to get Sun back on track.

I can not agree with your “McNealy did it” defense of Schwartz. Schwartz has had over four years to begin cleaning up the mess and many, if not most observers give him failing grades. There is no revenue growth and the modest financial improvements have come primarily thru layoffs and attrition. Sun’s marketing continues to be worst-in-class. Turnover in the sales organization has been rampant. Defections of top engineers continues unabated. Sun has botched most of the acquisitions they did over the post four years under Schwartz’s watch as COO or CEO.

Part of being a good leader is motivating the troops by convincing them that the mission is worthy, improving the results from you channel and strategic partners, and running a competent business plan that rewards shareholders. Recent surveys of Sun employees and channel partners indicate that there is no such conviction. The multi-year low on the stock price speaks for itself.

Schwartz may be successful as a blogger and may garner undue attention for being unconventional in his appearance and his devised business strategy, but a successful leader and CEO he is not.

During the dot-com boom, The VAR Guy was screaming “sell SUNW” while everyone was buying. Now, Schwartz is trying to clean up the mess. Agreed, Sun will need to work harder and faster to monetize MySQL. Server appliances and server bundles with Sun hardware should be much more aggressively promoted.

And at LinuxWorld Expo next week, Sun better be out in full force describing how its servers coupled with MySQL and third party apps are the ideal platforms for Web 2.0 systems.

Perhaps The VAR Guy fell for Schwartz’s charm (“not that there’s anything wrong with that”). Is new leadership needed? Perhaps. But let’s not forget who started this mess. McNealy bashed Windows servers and x86 for a decade. Sparc and Solaris were doomed to lose … as Wintel — and then Lintel — gained economies of scale.

MySQL may sound exciting in Schwartz’s blog postings, but very few observers or analysts can explain how Sun will ever monetize the deal and make a $1 BILLION expenditure generate return on investment. The percentage of MySQL installations that run in Windows and Linux environments is very high. Sun has a very limited success rate outside of Linux. The primary HW platforms in MySQL installations are likely to be Dell, HP and IBM – and NOT Sun.

The list of Schwartz’s shortcomings – not the least of which is that he has NO previous experience running a large (troubled) company – is lengthy. I will not bore the readers with a comprehensive list. Customers, partners, employees and investors would all be better off with new leadership at Sun – starting with the CEO but continuing well down into the leadership ranks.

July 10th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Yeah, the guy (Schwartz) is an effeminate little weasel. Good riddance.”

Absolutely right. I have no clue how this clown was anointed the CEO of a multibillion dollar company. OK, he came in when Sun was in some serious trouble. However, he has not done anything to recover the slide. Read some of his ramblings on his blog, and you’ll understand why. Do I sense a slight hint of immaturity or what?? Snicker, snicker….
A number of present and ex-Sun purist employees I know have said from the very beginning: “he just doesn’t get it”.

In creating ‘value for shareholders’ with the reverse stock split, look where the stock is now. Many people have taken a bath on the stock. They should have been ‘off with his head’ a long time ago…..