Sun up on comeback talk

SHARES IN in Sun edged up four per cent today after the Unix giant's latest layoffs and speculation that the company could pull of yet another transformation exercise.

A "buy" rating by Benjamin Reitzes yesterday gained attention after the UBS analyst compared new CEO Jonathan Schwartz's turnaround recipe to that of Anne Mulcahy's similar success at Xerox over recent years.

Reitzes's optimism is based on Sun's "stickiness" with customers and prospects for revenue growth, as well as, presumably, the tougher approach Sun is taking to headcount and various revenue-dissipating activities.

Over the years, Sun has variously been written off as likely to fall victim to Intel, Microsoft, HP, Red Hat and many others but has bounced back to embarrass pundits. µ