Sun sets out $209 million loss, will cut up to 5,000

The second quarter of fiscal year 2009 was a reworking period for Sun Microsystems, which on Tuesday reported a loss of $209 million, or 28 cents/share, in the wake of its restructuring effort announced back in November.

The loss exceeded analysts' estimates of 13 cents/share. But without those one-time restructuring losses, things look a little better -- as they do in comparison to last quarter, when Sun announced a net loss of $1.677 billion (or $2.24/share). Non-GAAP net income for Q2 was $114 million, or 15 cents/share. Last quarter non-GAAP results showed a net loss of $65 million, or 9 cents/share.

Gross margins for products were up nearly 4% from last quarter, while gross margins on services were down 1.2%; CFO Michael Lehman explained that sometimes the company takes on a lower-margin service project in the interest of building customer loyalty.

Total revenues for Q2 were $3.22 billion, a 7.7% increase over Q1's $2.99 billion. It's still a year-to-year decrease; in 2008's Q2, the company reported revenues of $3.615 billion. But there's good year-over-year news too, as Sun reports double-digit growth in billings for its software, Solaris-based chip multithreading systems, X64 servers, and open storage divisions. (The last division includes the flash-based, just-launched Amber Road storage offering.)

The company will lay off between 4,000 and 5,000 "head count."

Lehman, CFO and EVP of corporate resources, Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and president (L-R in the photo above) and VP and corporate treasurer Ron Pasek were on Tuesday's call.