Sun Microsystems is laying off about 1,500 employees this week in a follow-up to a restructuring plan announced a few months ago, the company confirmed Monday

The cuts include a portion of Sun's customer-facing staff, including direct sales and professional services employees.

Such a move would make Sun more reliant on channel partners to sell its products.

Sun announced in November that it planned to lay off 15 percent to 18 percent of its workforce, or up to 6,000 employees, in an effort to reduce costs by US$700 million to $800 million annually.

Sun said the layoffs affect staff at all levels, including vice presidents and directors.

These latest cuts would have been planned before any acquisition talks with IBM got under way, said Dan Olds, principal analyst at Gabriel Consulting, who also heard that Sun sales staff are among those affected.

Such a move carries some risk, however.

"Sun doesn't have as many exclusive channel partners as HP and IBM," Olds said. "Partners that aren't exclusive to Sun will pitch its products right up to the point when the customer asks them for something else, then they'll turn on a dime and sell them whatever they want. The difference with the Sun guys is that they would keep on pitching Sun products."

By: sun
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