2nd Ld-Writethru: Sun Microsystems to cut 3,000 jobs

Sun Microsystems Inc. is planning to cut 3,000 jobs or about 10 percent of its workforce in the next 12 months, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

In the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Sun Microsystems said its board has approved the layoff plan "in light of the delay in the closing of the acquisition of the company."

According to the filing, the job cuts will occur across the company's operations worldwide.

"The company expects to incur total charges ranging from 75 million U.S. dollars to 125 million dollars over the next several quarters in connection with the Restructuring Plan, the majority of which relates to cash severance costs and is expected to be incurred in the second and third quarters of the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010," Sun Microsystems said.

The Silicon Valley server and software maker is now waiting for European regulators to approve its acquisition by Oracle Corp., the world's largest enterprise software company, in a deal worth 7. 4 billion U.S. dollars.

Oracle and Sun Microsystems reached acquisition agreement in April after similar talks between Sun and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) broke down.

The deal won approval from U.S. regulators in August but is facing hurdles to get approved by European antitrust authorities.

The European Commission opened an antitrust investigation of the deal in early September, saying the proposed acquisition would raise serious doubts about competition on the market for databases.

The European Commission has set Jan. 19, 2010 as the deadline to make a final decision.

Related terms: acquisition, antitrust, investigation, securities, software