Sun changing its stock symbol to JAVA

[Joe Attardi]

I haven't seen any discussion about this on the group so I thought I'd
mention it. Jonathan Schwartz announced on his blog last week that Sun
is changing its stock symbol from SUNW to JAVA.

Does this make sense to anybody? Obviously Java is an important part of
Sun but surely there are other big pieces too - Solaris? The hardware
business?

Eric, if you're out there I'd love to hear your insight on this.

 

[Eric Sosman]

I haven't seen any discussion about this on the group so I thought I'd
mention it. Jonathan Schwartz announced on his blog last week that Sun
is changing its stock symbol from SUNW to JAVA.

Does this make sense to anybody? Obviously Java is an important part of
Sun but surely there are other big pieces too - Solaris? The hardware
business?

Eric, if you're out there I'd love to hear your insight on this.

Juliet said it all: "What's in a name? That which we call
a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

 

[Joe Attardi]

Juliet said it all: "What's in a name? That which we call
a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Fair enough, I guess.

 

[Lew]

Fair enough, I guess.

"A rose is a rose is a rose."
- Gertrude Stein

 

[Matthias Buelow]

I haven't seen any discussion about this on the group so I thought I'd
mention it. Jonathan Schwartz announced on his blog last week that Sun
is changing its stock symbol from SUNW to JAVA.

Probably before long, Sun Microsystems will be renamed to "The Java
Company"(tm).
And then get invaded by Indonesia.

 

[Lew]

Probably before long, Sun Microsystems will be renamed to "The Java
Company"(tm).
And then get invaded by Indonesia.

They might run into trademark difficulty due to
<http://www.javatradingco.com/>
<http://www.outlandjava.com/java/>
<http://www.javabrewingco.com/>
and most tellingly
<http://www.scottsdalejavaco.com/>

For the downside to the move, check out
<http://seekingalpha.com/article/45581-sun-were-a-java-company-just-look-at-our-ticker>
and the comments to
<http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/java_is_everywhere>

 

[Joe Attardi]

Probably before long, Sun Microsystems will be renamed to "The Java
Company"(tm).

I remember thinking that same thing when they announced the renaming of
the "Sun ONE *" products to "Sun Java System *".

 

[Steve Sobol]

They might run into trademark difficulty due to

Or not. How many of those links are to companies that manufacture or sell
*coffee*? The laws are pretty straightforward on this.

 

[Christian]

Or not. How many of those links are to companies that manufacture or sell
*coffee*? The laws are pretty straightforward on this.

Isn't Sun also into tradeing Beans?

 

[Lew]

Isn't Sun also into tradeing Beans?

caffeine == software.

There is bound to be confusion.

 

[Roedy Green]

changing its stock symbol from SUNW to JAVA.

JAVA is more memorable than SUNW. It could just as easily be SUNV. I
guess plain SUN was taken.

Since Java has been embraced by so many other companies, I can see Sun
wanting to reassert their Java primacy. Every mention by other
companies of Java becomes a micro-ad for Sun.

Sun's strategy has been to convince companies to go to multiplatform
Java. This then makes it painless to migrate to any hardware. If Sun
can make the best specialised hardware to run Java, eventually the
business flows to them.

They want to create the association in the untrained mind that Java
naturally belongs best on Sun hardware, just because of the names.

 

[Patricia Shanahan]

JAVA is more memorable than SUNW. It could just as easily be SUNV. I
guess plain SUN was taken.

I thought the "W" was for "Workstations", Sun's main product when it
went public.

Patricia

 

[Manish Pandit]

JAVA is more memorable than SUNW. It could just as easily be SUNV. I
guess plain SUN was taken.

Also, the convention is that NASDAQ symbols are at least 4 characters
(up until March 2007), while NYSE are 1-3 characters. I think AMEX can
be anything.

-cheers,
Manish