Sun posts profit for Q407

Sun Microsystems yesterday reported a fourth quarter profit for its fiscal year 2007 ahead of analysts' expectations.

The California, US-headquartered server and software maker posted net income for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2007 ended June 30, 2007 of US$329 million, or 9 cents per share, versus a year-earlier net loss of US$301 million.

The profit beat analysts' average estimate of 5 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Fourth quarter revenues reached US$3.84 billion compared to US$3.83 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The results marked a step forward for Sun, which has fought to improve its financial performance in recent years and an achievement for Jonathan Schwartz, who took over as the company's president and CEO in April last year. The computer maker, which returned to profit in the second and third quarters after five consecutive quarterly losses, has tried to stage a recovery by revamping its product line, selling servers powered by chips from AMD and Intel, among other moves.

The company last year announced plans to cut up to 5,000 jobs to cut costs.

"With a solid strategy and consistent execution, we delivered on our commitment to achieve at least 4% operating margin in the fourth quarter. This milestone marks significant progress toward our longer-term growth plan of at least 10% operating margin for the full fiscal year 2009," Schwartz commented in a statement.

For the full year fiscal 2007, Sun registered net income of US$473 million versus a net loss of US$864 million for fiscal 2006.

Revenues for the full year rose 6.2% over 2006 to reach US$13.87 billion.