Viewpoint

Digg This!

In true Web 2.0 style, Sun's CEO Jonathan Schwartz last week gave an inadvertent masterclass in how those who live by the blog also die by the blog, when he publicly blogged an advance heads-up that Sun is about to "retire" its historic NASDAQ ticker symbol "SUNW" and replace it with "JAVA," the name of what Schwartz somewhat hyperbolically described as "a technology whose value is near infinite to the Internet."

For those who do not have the time to plow through the 345 (at this writing) comments that have been streaming in to Jonathan's Blog ever since, here's a round-up of what his readers said. Some of it has to have made tough reading, even to the most prominent CEO-blogger anywhere in the industry.

Kemp Watson for example called it "the biggest atom bomb yet posted to this blog."

One anonymous poster cut right to the chase, calling Schwartz out for indulging in mere calisthenics with symbols rather than serious management:

"I've never commented on your blog before, Jonathan, but this one deserves a response.

This is quite possibly the silliest move Sun has ever made. As a stockholder I'm appalled that Sun would waste time and money to do this. I can understand putting the nightmare decline of SUNW behind you, but nobody will be fooled. The market judges you on your products, vision and performance not on your stock ticker symbol. This is a move right out of the Dilbert school of management."

Another, calling himself just small-time investor, makes the same point:

"I can't remember the last time a company changed their name OR stock symbol to a product of theirs. No matter if it's good or not - products have lifecycles. Success is fleeting. What if there had been a stock symbol 'COBL'? Or, while we're at it 'LOGO'. Heck, not even Apple would use IPOD as it would be seen as a limiting, dumb move, no matter how good or successful the product is now. Is Sun going to rename every few years?"

And Blogasaurus too hammered home the message:

"Any company that centers itself around one language is doomed for failure. Please reverse this, and embrace open standards, choice, and not just a captive and limiting platform."

So much for examples of the more measured responses. But the blogosphere would not be the blogosphere without its more vehement denizens.

Fenando Fernandez for example hit his caps lock key in protest:

"DON'T DO IT! YOU WILL KILL SUN AND JAVA IN ONE SINGLE MOVE!"

While Mike didn't need block caps to make his point:

"Sun has some of the worst marketing and this is just icing on the cake. Did anyone really consult before making this decision? This isn't Hollywood where bad publicity is publicity. Even the reasoning is silly."

Nor was Mike the only person to take issue with the logic of making JAVA the new ticker because "Java is everywhere" as Schwartz contends. Hering Cheng thinks Schwartz may be backing the wrong horse:

"I feel that it is unfortunate that Sun has decided to bet its farm on Java. Being an active Java developer and an avid user of Solaris (and owner of a few SUNW shares), I'd say that the greatest software asset that Sun has is Solaris. Java as a platform, in my view, has a shorter lifespan than Solaris. I would not be surprised if, in a few years, Java will be totally eclipsed by other technologies."

And a Sun employee, Micah, raised the sore point of announcing such a cosmetic move precisely when some real surgery was going on relative to the Sun workforce:

"As an employee and stock-holder, I question the use of any amount of resources for this change. In the face of layoffs, any amount of money spent on the research and promotion of such a change appears wasteful...I find it hard to believe that potential investors (or customers for that matter) will be swayed in our direction because our ticker is now JAVA."

Not everyone disagreed with Schwartz. Frank, for example, wrote:

"Most people do not seem to understand the long term effects of this renaming. Kids in school and colleges today are the consumers, and stock movers of tomorrow. Making this move now ensures that 5-10 years from now, JAVA brand will propel the company. Kids today understand JAVA better than SUNW. This is ofcourse making a bet that Java will be popular 5-10 years from now, but that is a risk Sun has to take. This will have zero impact next term, but a huge impact to the long term growth of Sun. Bravo, Jonathan!"

And Paul D. bought into the logic of the change:

"How many people "discovered" Sun because its stock symbol was SunW = 0. How many MIGHT discover us because of the linkage with JAVA = >0. That's enough for me."

As too did Chris Freyer:

"I think its a GOOD THING to change the stock symbol to something more recognizable. In a flat world (i.e. Thomas Friedman's book), its smart to capitalize on what is uniquely yours."