Sun Mircosystems's poor quarterly results justify Oracle's concerns

Oracle, (ORCL) which is trying to buy Sun Microsystems (JAVA) for $9.50 a share, has been concerned that the smaller company's financial position will be hurt by delays in the acquisition. On Friday, Sun filed its 10-Q report with its results for the third quarter, and the numbers proved that Oracle was correct to be concerned.

Sun lost $120 million in the period or $0.16 a share. In the same period a year ago, the company lost $1.68 billion, but it took at $1.5 billion "impairment of goodwill" charge for that quarter. Sun's falling revenue is probably a larger issue. Sales for the quarter that just ended were $2.24 billion, down from almost $3 billion in the third quarter of 2008.