DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Sun Microsystems Inc.'s (JAVA) fiscal first-quarter loss narrowed despite another decline in revenue, as the hardware and software company recorded much smaller unusual charges. The company recently said it will cut 10% of its work force because of delays in its $7.4 billion sale to Oracle Corp. (ORCL). Once one of Silicon Valley's most influential companies, Sun reacted later than competitors to a shift to low-price server systems. More recently, the hardware and software maker suffered more than competitors because many customers were concentrated in the hard-hit financial-services sector. For the quarter ended Sept. 27, Sun reported a loss of $120 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.68 billion, or $2.24 a share, a year earlier. The latest results included pretax charges of $45 million for restructuring and $6 million for impairments, a sharp improvement from $63 million and $1.45 billion, respectively, a year earlier. Excluding items, earnings were 2 cents a share. Revenue dropped 25% to $2.24 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected a loss of 23 cents a share on revenue of $2.34 billion. Gross margin widened to 43.4% from 40.2%, while inventories decreased 1.2%. Product revenue fell 33%, while services revenue declined 14%. Sun's shares rose 0.9% to $8.17 in after-hours trading. The stock has lost about 90% of its value in the past year. -By Jay Miller, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2355; jay.miller@dowjones.com
