Sun, the UNIX giant has announced a round of what is termed in the industry as ‘restructuring’ - basically, it means lots of people will lose their jobs. In fact, 3,000 people are being made redundant!

The announcement comes following a 7 percent drop in first-quarter revenue last month. It may not seem like a big number but when you considering the billions Sun turns over in revenue it equals an awful lot of pay packets.

The restructuring will see between 15 percent and 18 percent of Suns global workforce being laid off - including Rich Green, executive VP of software.

Sun’s restructuring will result in a charge of between $500 million and $600 million over the next 12 months, with about $375 million to $450 million coming in the current 2009 fiscal year.

The company said it should start seeing cost savings in the third quarter of the current fiscal year. Sun expects the restructuring to save it between $700 million and $800 million annually. I wonder how much of that cash will be eaten up in the first year by redundancy payoffs?

Sun is also planning to realign its software organization into new business groups: Application Platform Software, Systems Platforms, and Cloud Computing & Developer Platforms, with a focus on “boosting open-source momentum and growing new sectors of the market who view technology as a competitive weapon.”

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